In a scalene triangle , points and lie on and , respectively, such that . Points and are the reflections of and with respect to the midpoints of sides and , respectively. Point lies on such that the circumcenter of triangle coincides with the circumcenter of triangle . Show that the nine-point circle of triangle passes through the midpoint of segment .
Solutions — 2
Solution 1
Let be the center of circumcircle of triangle and let the line intersect this circle for a second time at point . Suppose that , are diameters of the circumcircle of triangle .
Note that points , are the reflections of points , with respect to the line passing through which is parallel to , hence and . Therefore the quadrilateral is cyclic.
Let be the second intersection of the -altitude with the circumcircle of triangle . Note that triangles , are symmetrical with respect to the perpendicular bisector of the side , hence . Similarly triangles , are symmetric with respect to perpendicular bisector of the side , therefore . Note that is the reflection of point with respect to the line passing through which is parallel to , hence
Therefore and the quadrilateral is cyclic.
Proof. Let intersect the circumcircle of triangle at .
Note that , therefore hence points are collinear and
Let intersect the circumcircle of triangle at for the second time. are the midpoints segments respectively and is the orthocenter of triangle .
Point is the center of circumcircle of triangle , therefore is the midpoint of chord . If is the distance of to the side , it is well known that . Note that as well, hence by Thales's theorem is the midpoint of segment . The homothety centered at with ratio takes the circumcircle of triangle to its nine-point circle. This homothety takes to , thus lies on the nine-point circle of triangle .
Lemma. 1 Let points lie on the circle with center and be an arbitrary line. is the projection of onto . Points lie on the line such that . intersect for the second time at points . If intersect at points then
Proof. Let be a point on such that . Note that quadrilateral is a cyclic trapezoid are the reflections of with respect to the line .
By law of sines in triangles :
Quadrilateral is cyclic, therefore . Hence
Note that the ratios of power of points with respect to circle and circumcircle of triangle are equal, hence circles and the circumcircles of triangles are coaxial which means quadrilateral is cyclic. This quadrilateral is a cyclic trapezoid are symmetric with respect to line hence
Claim 4. lies on the line
Proof. Letting be the midpoint of side , by Lemma 1. for the circle , line and points , the line passes through the point .
Let intersect the circumcircle of triangle at for the second time. , are the midpoints segments , respectively and is the orthocenter of triangle .
Point is the center of circumcircle of triangle , therefore is the midpoint of chord . If is the distance of to the side , it is well known that .
Note that as well, hence by Thales's theorem is the midpoint of segment . The homothety centered at with ratio takes the circumcircle of triangle to its nine-point circle. This homothety takes to , thus lies on the nine-point circle of triangle .
Solution 2
We call the foot of the altitude from as . Consider points and such that and are parallelograms. Now, since , it follows that is also a parallelogram, which implies . Thus, is also a parallelogram. The extension of intersects the circumcircle of at .
First, note that since and , is a rectangle. Since lies on the perpendicular bisectors of segments and , is an isosceles trapezoid, and therefore is an isosceles trapezoid. Moreover, since , is cyclic. Given all the mentioned results, the points lie on same circle.
Now, suppose and are the midpoints of and , respectively, and is the reflection of with respect to . Since , the points are collinear. Now, since , is cyclic, and thus . By applying a homothety with ratio centered at , we conclude that , which implies that lies on the nine-point circle of .