Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.0 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Let ABCABC be an acute scalene triangle with incenter II. Show that the circumcircle of BICBIC intersects the Euler line of ABCABC in two distinct points.

(Recall that the Euler line of a scalene triangle is the line that passes through its circumcenter, centroid, orthocenter, and the nine-point center.)

Solution

Solution:

Let OO and HH be the circumcenter and orthocenter of ABCABC. Recall that
BOC=2A,BHC=180A,BIC=90+12A. \begin{aligned} \angle BOC & = 2\angle A, \\ \angle BHC & = 180^\circ - \angle A, \\ \angle BIC & = 90^\circ + \frac{1}{2} \angle A. \end{aligned}
As ABCABC is acute, AA, II, OO, HH all lie on the same side of BCBC.

- If A>60\angle A > 60^\circ, then BOC>BIC\angle BOC > \angle BIC, so OO lies inside (BIC)(BIC).
- If A<60\angle A < 60^\circ, then BHC>BIC\angle BHC > \angle BIC, so HH lies inside (BIC)(BIC).
- If A=60\angle A = 60^\circ, then OO and HH are on (BIC)(BIC).

In all cases, two intersections are guaranteed.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.