Olympiad Maths Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.8 National olympiad Prove it Czech Republic

We are given a segment ABAB in the plane. Consider a triangle XYZXYZ with the following properties: the vertex XX is an interior point of the segment ABAB, the triangles XBYXBY and XZAXZA are similar (XBYXZA\triangle XBY \sim \triangle XZA) and the points AA, BB, YY, ZZ lie on a circle in this order. Find the locus of midpoints of the sides YZYZ of all such triangles XYZXYZ.

Solution

Let XYZXYZ be a satisfactory triangle. Then the vertices YY and ZZ must lie in the same half-plane with the boundary line ABAB. Denote by YY' the reflection of YY through the line ABAB. Due to the presumed similarity, the angles XAZXAZ and BYXBYX are congruent (Fig. 1) and hence BAZ=BYZ|\angle BAZ| = |\angle BY'Z| as well. Using the well known inscribed angles property we conclude that the circumcircle of ABZ\triangle ABZ passes not only through the point YY, but also through the point YY'. The line ABAB (as a perpendicular bisector of the chord YYYY') passes through the centre OO of the circle kk and thus the chord ABAB is a diameter of kk. Since the segment ABAB is fixed, the circle k=ABYZk = ABYZ is common for all satisfactory triangles XYZXYZ and the midpoint MM of YZYZ must lie in the interior of kk. Since the both angles OMZOMZ and OMYOMY are right (Fig. 2), the (lesser) angles AMOAMO and BMOBMO are acute and thus the point MM must lie in the intersection of the exteriors of Thales' circles with diameters AOAO and BOBO. In what follows we will show the both derived necessary conditions determine the locus of all the possible midpoints MM.

Figure 1
Fig. 1
Figure 2
Fig. 2

So, let MM be any point in the interior of kk for which the both angles AMOAMO and BMOBMO are acute (i.e. MM lies in the exteriors of the circles with diameters AOAO and BOBO). Consider a chord of kk which passes through MM perpendicularly to OMOM. This chord does not intersect the diameter ABAB, because of the acute angles AMOAMO and BMOBMO. Thus the endpoints of the chord with the midpoint MM can be denoted as YY and ZZ so that AA, BB, YY, ZZ lie on kk in this order. If YY reflects to YY' through the diameter ABAB and if XX denotes the intersection point of the segments ABAB and YZY'Z, then the triangles XBYXBY and XZAXZA are similar as required (by theorem AA). This completes the solution.

Figure 1
Fig. 1

Figure 2
Fig. 2

Conclusion. The locus under consideration is the interior of the highlighted region bounded by the three circles with diameters ABAB, AOAO and BOBO, where OO denotes the midpoint of segment ABAB (Fig. 3).
Figure 3
Fig. 3

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