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Geometry Difficulty 7.8 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Iran

In a scalene triangle ABCABC, points XX and YY lie on BCBC and ACAC, respectively, such that BCXYBC \perp XY. Points TT and ZZ are the reflections of YY and XX with respect to the midpoints of sides ACAC and BCBC, respectively. Point PP lies on ZTZT such that the circumcenter of triangle XZPXZP coincides with the circumcenter of triangle ABCABC. Show that the nine-point circle of triangle ABCABC passes through the midpoint of segment XPXP.

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

Let OO be the center of circumcircle of triangle XPZXPZ and let the line XYXY intersect this circle for a second time at point QQ. Suppose that AAAA', CCCC' are diameters of the circumcircle of triangle ABCABC.

Note that points CC', QQ are the reflections of points BB, XX with respect to the line passing through OO which is parallel to BCBC, hence CQBCC'Q \parallel BC and CQY=90=CAY\angle C'QY = 90^\circ = \angle C'AY. Therefore the quadrilateral CAYQC'AYQ is cyclic.

Let DD be the second intersection of the AA-altitude with the circumcircle of triangle ABCABC. Note that triangles DBXDBX, ACZA'CZ are symmetrical with respect to the perpendicular bisector of the side BCBC, hence DBXACZ\triangle DBX \cong \triangle A'CZ. Similarly triangles ACYAC'Y, CATCA'T are symmetric with respect to perpendicular bisector of the side ACAC, therefore ACYCAT\triangle AC'Y \cong \triangle CA'T. Note that DD is the reflection of point AA with respect to the line passing through OO which is parallel to BCBC, hence ACQDBX\triangle AC'Q \cong \triangle DBX
AQC=DXB=AZC \angle AQC' = \angle DXB = \angle A'ZC
ATC=CYA=CQA \angle A'TC = \angle C'YA = \angle C'QA
Therefore AZC=ATC\angle A'ZC = \angle A'TC and the quadrilateral AZTCA'ZTC is cyclic.

Proof. Let AQAQ intersect the circumcircle of triangle XZQXZQ at PP'.
XZP=XQP=YQA=90AQCAQC=DXB=AZC \begin{aligned} \angle XZP' &= \angle XQP' = \angle YQA = 90^\circ - \angle AQC' \\ \angle AQC' &= \angle DXB = \angle A'ZC \end{aligned}
Note that ACT=90\angle A'CT = 90^\circ, therefore TZC=90CZA=90AQC\angle TZC = 90^\circ - \angle CZA' = 90^\circ - \angle AQC' hence points Z,P,TZ, P', T are collinear and PPP \equiv P' \Box

Let AQAQ intersect the circumcircle of triangle ABCABC at RR for the second time. M,NM, N are the midpoints segments XP,PQXP, PQ respectively and HH is the orthocenter of triangle ABCABC.

Point OO is the center of circumcircle of triangle ABCABC, therefore NN is the midpoint of chord ARAR. If kk is the distance of OO to the side BCBC, it is well known that AH=2kAH = 2k. Note that 2MN=XQ=2k2MN = XQ = 2k as well, hence by Thales's theorem MM is the midpoint of segment RHRH. The homothety centered at HH with ratio 1/21/2 takes the circumcircle of triangle ABCABC to its nine-point circle. This homothety takes RR to MM, thus MM lies on the nine-point circle of triangle ABCABC.

Lemma. 1 Let points Z,QZ, Q lie on the circle ω\omega with center OO and ll be an arbitrary line. MM is the projection of OO onto ll. Points Y,TY, T lie on the line ll such that MY=MTMY = MT. YQ,TZYQ, TZ intersect ω\omega for the second time at points X,PX, P. If PQ,ZXPQ, ZX intersect ll at points A,CA, C then AM=CMAM = CM

Proof. Let PP' be a point on ω\omega such that PPlPP' \parallel l. Note that quadrilateral TPPYTPP'Y is a cyclic trapezoid (P,Y(P', Y are the reflections of P,TP, T with respect to the line OM)OM).
Figure 1
By law of sines in triangles ATP,TZC,XYC,YQAATP, TZC, XYC, YQA:
TPTA=sinTAPsinTPA,TZTC=sinTCZsinTZCCYXY=sinCXYsinYCX,AYYQ=sinAQYsinYAQ \begin{aligned} \frac{TP}{TA} &= \frac{\sin \angle TAP}{\sin \angle TPA'}, \quad \frac{TZ}{TC} = \frac{\sin \angle TCZ}{\sin \angle TZC} \\ \frac{CY}{XY} &= \frac{\sin \angle CXY}{\sin \angle YCX'}, \quad \frac{AY}{YQ} = \frac{\sin \angle AQY}{\sin \angle YAQ} \end{aligned}
Quadrilateral ZQXPZQXP is cyclic, therefore APT=YXC,AQY=TZC\angle APT = \angle YXC, \angle AQY = \angle TZC. Hence
TPTZTATC=YXYQYCYA \frac{TP \cdot TZ}{TA \cdot TC} = \frac{YX \cdot YQ}{YC \cdot YA}
Note that the ratios of power of points T,YT, Y with respect to circle ω\omega and circumcircle of triangle APCAPC are equal, hence circles ω\omega and the circumcircles of triangles YPT,APCYPT, APC are coaxial which means quadrilateral APPCAPP'C is cyclic. This quadrilateral is a cyclic trapezoid (AP,PC(AP, P'C are symmetric with respect to line OM)OM) hence MA=MCMA = MC \square

Claim 4. AA lies on the line PQPQ

Proof. Letting MM be the midpoint of side ACAC, by Lemma 1. for the circle ω\omega, line ACAC and points ZZ, QQ the line PQPQ passes through the point AA. \Box

Let AQAQ intersect the circumcircle of triangle ABCABC at RR for the second time. RR', NN are the midpoints segments XPXP, PQPQ respectively and HH is the orthocenter of triangle ABCABC.

Point OO is the center of circumcircle of triangle ABCABC, therefore NN is the midpoint of chord ARAR. If kk is the distance of OO to the side BCBC, it is well known that AH=2kAH = 2k.
Note that 2RN=XQ=2k2R'N = XQ = 2k as well, hence by Thales's theorem RR' is the midpoint of segment RHRH. The homothety centered at HH with ratio 1/21/2 takes the circumcircle of triangle ABCABC to its nine-point circle. This homothety takes RR to RR', thus RR' lies on the nine-point circle of triangle ABCABC.

Solution 2

We call the foot of the altitude from AA as DD. Consider points EE and KK such that AEXYAEXY and AKZBAKZB are parallelograms. Now, since EX=AY=CTEX = AY = CT, it follows that ETCXETCX is also a parallelogram, which implies ET=CX=BZET = CX = BZ. Thus, ETZBETZB is also a parallelogram. The extension of BEBE intersects the circumcircle of ABCABC at FF.

First, note that since AK=ETAK = ET and AKETAK \parallel ET, AKTEAKTE is a rectangle. Since OO lies on the perpendicular bisectors of segments FBFB and PZPZ, PZBFPZBF is an isosceles trapezoid, and therefore FPTEFPTE is an isosceles trapezoid. Moreover, since AFE=ACB=ATE\angle AFE = \angle ACB = \angle ATE, AFTEAFTE is cyclic. Given all the mentioned results, the points A,F,K,P,T,EA, F, K, P, T, E lie on same circle.

Now, suppose MM and NN are the midpoints of BCBC and PXPX, respectively, and XX' is the reflection of XX with respect to ADAD. Since KET=KAT=ACB=EXD=EXD\angle KET = \angle KAT = \angle ACB = \angle EXD = \angle EX'D, the points K,E,XK, E, X' are collinear. Now, since KPT=180KET=180KXZ\angle KPT = 180^\circ - \angle KET = 180^\circ - \angle KX'Z, KPZXKPZX' is cyclic, and thus XPZ=XKZ=KZCKXZ=BC\angle X'PZ = \angle X'KZ = \angle KZC - \angle KX'Z = \angle B - \angle C. By applying a homothety with ratio 12\frac{1}{2} centered at XX, we conclude that MND=BC\angle MND = \angle B - \angle C, which implies that NN lies on the nine-point circle of ABCABC.

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