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Geometry Difficulty 6.8 National olympiad Prove it Iran

Let II be the incenter of triangle ABCABC. XX is a point on arc BCBC of the circumcircle of triangle ABCABC such that if EE and FF are the feet of the perpendiculars from XX to BIBI and CICI, respectively, and MM is the midpoint of EFEF, then MB=MCMB = MC. If DD is the foot of the perpendicular from II to BCBC, show that BAD=CAX\angle BAD = \angle CAX.

Solution

First, we prove two lemmas.

Lemma 1. Let l1l_1 and l2l_2 be two lines and AA, BB and CC three points in the plane. Denote by A1A_1 and A2A_2 the perpendicular projections of AA on l1l_1 and l2l_2, respectively. Furthermore, let AA' be the midpoint of A1A2A_1A_2. BB' and CC' are defined similarly. AA, BB and CC are collinear if and only if AA', BB' and CC' are collinear.

*Proof.* The key observation is that AB=12(A1B1+A2B2)\overrightarrow{A'B'} = \frac{1}{2}(\overrightarrow{A_1B_1} + \overrightarrow{A_2B_2}) and BC=12(B1C1+B2C2)\overrightarrow{B'C'} = \frac{1}{2}(\overrightarrow{B_1C_1} + \overrightarrow{B_2C_2}). Using these observations and the Thales' theorem, it is easy to check that the assertion is equivalent to the equality A1B1A2B2=B1C1B2C2\frac{A_1B_1}{A_2B_2} = \frac{B_1C_1}{B_2C_2}. \square

Lemma 2. Let TT be the midpoint of arc BACBAC of the circumcircle of triangle ABCABC. Furthermore, let HbH_b and HcH_c be the feet of the perpendicular lines from TT to the internal bisectors of B\angle B and C\angle C, respectively. If TT' is the midpoint of HbHcH_bH_c, then TT' lies on the perpendicular bisector of side BCBC.

*Proof.* Let NN be the midpoint of side BCBC. Note that THcCHcTH_c \perp CH_c and TNBCTN \perp BC, hence the quadrilateral THcNCTH_cNC is cyclic and
HcNB=HcTC=90TCHc=HcCB+NTC=90B2. \angle H_c N B = \angle H_c T C = 90^\circ - \angle T C H_c = \angle H_c C B + \angle N T C = 90^\circ - \frac{\angle B}{2}.
It means that HcNH_cN is parallel to the external bisector of BAC\angle BAC. On the other hand, THbTH_b is also parallel to the external bisector of ABC\angle ABC and thus THbHcNTH_b \parallel H_cN. Similarly, THcHbNTH_c \parallel H_bN. So THcNHbTH_cNH_b is a parallelogram and hence TT', the midpoint of HbHcH_bH_c, lies on TNTN. But TNTN is the perpendicular bisector of side BCBC, which is what we desired to prove.

Figure 1

We will keep using the notations in lemma 2. We will now apply lemma 1, with ICIC, IBIB, IaI_a, XX and MM playing the roles of l1l_1, l2l_2, AA, BB and CC, respectively. Since NN, MM and TT' are collinear, we obtain that IaI_a, XX and TT are collinear, too. Now, by an inversion with center AA and power AB×ACAB \times AC and then a reflection with respect to the internal bisector of angle BAC\angle BAC, BB is sent to CC, CC is sent to BB, IaI_a is sent to II and MM is sent to the foot of the external bisector of A\angle A, say MM'. If XX' is the image of XX under this transformation, then points AA, II, XX' and MM' are on a common circle. So IXM=IAM=90\angle IX'M' = \angle IAM' = 90^\circ. On the other hand, since the line BCBC is the image of the circumcircle of triangle ABCABC under this transformation, XX' lies on the line BCBC. This implies that X=DX' = D and thus BAD=CAX\angle BAD = \angle CAX.

Figure 2

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