Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / Singapore Mathematical Olympiad /1 of 9

Singapore Mathematical Olympiad

Geometry Difficulty 4.9 AIME Prove it Singapore

Let OO be a point inside a triangle ABCABC such that ∠BOC=90∘\angle BOC = 90^\circ and ∠BAO=∠BCO\angle BAO = \angle BCO. Prove that ∠OMN=90∘\angle OMN = 90^\circ, where MM, NN are the midpoints of ACAC and BCBC respectively.

Solution

Extend COCO to a point DD such that CO=ODCO = OD. Since ∠BOC=90∘\angle BOC = 90^\circ, the triangles BOCBOC and BODBOD are congruent. Let ω1\omega_1 be the circumcircle of the triangle BODBOD. Since ∠BDO=∠BCO=∠BAO\angle BDO = \angle BCO = \angle BAO, the point AA lies on ω1\omega_1. As MM, OO, NN are the midpoints of CACA, CDCD, CBCB respectively, the homothety centered at CC with similitude ratio 12\frac{1}{2} maps ω1\omega_1 to the circumcircle ω2\omega_2 of the triangle MONMON. As DBDB is a diameter of ω1\omega_1, ONON is a diameter of ω2\omega_2. Thus ∠OMN=90∘\angle OMN = 90^\circ.
Figure 1

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,604 problems in a working order, from Junior Challenge level to the IMO shortlist.

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