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Geometry Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Croatia

The incircle of the acute triangle ABCABC touches the segments BCBC, CACA, ABAB at points DD, EE, FF respectively. Let SS be the incenter and PP be the intersection of the line DSDS and the segment EFEF. If MM is the midpoint of the segment BCBC prove that the points AA, PP and MM are collinear.

Solution

Since quadrilaterals BFSDBFSD and CDSECDSE are cyclic, we have ∠FSD=180∘−β\angle FSD = 180^\circ - \beta and ∠ESD=180∘−γ\angle ESD = 180^\circ - \gamma so ∠FSP=β\angle FSP = \beta and ∠ESP=γ\angle ESP = \gamma.
Figure 1
Let x=∠FAPx = \angle FAP and y=∠BAMy = \angle BAM. Then ∠EAP=α−x\angle EAP = \alpha - x and ∠CAM=α−y\angle CAM = \alpha - y.
Applying the law of sines on triangles EAPEAP and FAPFAP we get
∣EP∣sin⁡(α−x)=∣AE∣sin⁡(∠APE),∣FP∣sin⁡x=∣AF∣sin⁡(∠APF). \frac{|EP|}{\sin(\alpha - x)} = \frac{|AE|}{\sin(\angle APE)}, \quad \frac{|FP|}{\sin x} = \frac{|AF|}{\sin(\angle APF)}.
Dividing those two equalities because of ∣AE∣=∣AF∣|AE| = |AF| and ∠APE+∠APF=180∘\angle APE + \angle APF = 180^\circ we get
sin⁡xsin⁡(α−x)=∣FP∣∣EP∣. \frac{\sin x}{\sin(\alpha - x)} = \frac{|FP|}{|EP|}.
Applying the law of sines on triangles EPSEPS and FPSFPS we get
∣EP∣sin⁡(∠PSE)=∣SP∣sin⁡(∠PES),∣FP∣sin⁡(∠PSF)=∣SP∣sin⁡(∠PFS) \frac{|EP|}{\sin(\angle PSE)} = \frac{|SP|}{\sin(\angle PES)}, \quad \frac{|FP|}{\sin(\angle PSF)} = \frac{|SP|}{\sin(\angle PFS)}
i.e.
∣EP∣sin⁡γ=∣SP∣sin⁡α2,∣FP∣sin⁡β=∣SP∣sin⁡α2so∣EP∣∣FP∣=sin⁡γsin⁡β. \frac{|EP|}{\sin \gamma} = \frac{|SP|}{\sin \frac{\alpha}{2}}, \quad \frac{|FP|}{\sin \beta} = \frac{|SP|}{\sin \frac{\alpha}{2}} \quad \text{so} \quad \frac{|EP|}{|FP|} = \frac{\sin \gamma}{\sin \beta}.

Observing the triangles ABMABM and ACMACM we see that:
∣BM∣sin⁡y=∣AM∣sin⁡β,∣CM∣sin⁡(α−y)=∣AM∣sin⁡γ \frac{|BM|}{\sin y} = \frac{|AM|}{\sin \beta}, \quad \frac{|CM|}{\sin(\alpha - y)} = \frac{|AM|}{\sin \gamma}
so
sin⁡ysin⁡(α−y)=sin⁡βsin⁡γ. \frac{\sin y}{\sin(\alpha - y)} = \frac{\sin \beta}{\sin \gamma}.
From all of the above we obtain the equation
sin⁡xsin⁡(α−x)=sin⁡ysin⁡(α−y) \frac{\sin x}{\sin(\alpha - x)} = \frac{\sin y}{\sin(\alpha - y)}
from which we can deduce that x=yx = y.

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