Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2015

Geometry Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it Saudi Arabia

Let ABCABC be a triangle, Γ\Gamma its circumcircle, II its incenter, and ω\omega a tangent circle to the line AIAI at II and to the side BCBC. Prove that the circles Γ\Gamma and ω\omega are tangent.

Solution

Let MM be the midpoint of arc BCBC not containing AA, EE the tangent point of BCBC to ω\omega, FF the second intersection point of EMEM with ω\omega. Remember that MM is the circumcenter of triangle BCIBCI and therefore MI=MBMI = MB.

Figure 1

Because MIMI is tangent to ω\omega, we have from the power of the point MM with respect to ω\omega
MEMF=MI2=MB2. ME \cdot MF = MI^2 = MB^2.
We deduce that the line BMBM is tangent to the circumcircle of triangle BEFBEF. Therefore
BFM=MBE=MAC=BAM. \angle BFM = \angle MBE = \angle MAC = \angle BAM.
This means that point FF is on the circle Γ\Gamma.

Because the tangent line to Γ\Gamma at MM is parallel to the tangent line to ω\omega at EE and F,E,MF, E, M are collinear and FF is an intersection point of Γ\Gamma and ω\omega, FF is the center of the homothety of the two circles ω\omega and Γ\Gamma and therefore, they are tangent.

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