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Baltic Way Problem Shortlist, 2011

Geometry Difficulty 7.6 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Baltic Way

The incircle of a triangle ABCABC touches the sides BCBC, CACA, ABAB at DD, EE, FF, respectively. Let GG be a point on the incircle such that FGFG is a diameter. The lines EGEG and FDFD intersect at HH. Prove that CH∥ABCH \parallel AB.

Solution

We work in the opposite direction. Suppose that H′H' is the point where DFDF intersects the line through CC parallel to ABAB. We need to show that H′=HH' = H. For this purpose it suffices to prove that EE, GG, H′H' are collinear, which reduces to showing that if G′≠EG' \neq E is the common point of EH′EH' and the incircle, then G′=GG' = G.

Figure 1

Note that H′H' and BB lie on the same side of ACAC. Hence CH′∥ABCH' \parallel AB gives ∠ACH′=180∘−∠BAC\angle ACH' = 180^\circ - \angle BAC. Also, some homothety with center DD maps the segment BFBF to the segment CH′CH'. Thus the equality BD=BFBD = BF implies that CH′=CD=CECH' = CD = CE, i.e. the triangle ECH′ECH' is isosceles and
∠H′EC=12(180∘−∠ECH′)=12∠BAC. \angle H'EC = \frac{1}{2}(180^\circ - \angle ECH') = \frac{1}{2}\angle BAC.
But G′G' and H′H' lie on the same side of ACAC, so ∠G′EC=∠H′EC\angle G'EC = \angle H'EC and consequently
∠G′FE=∠G′EC=∠H′EC=12∠BAC \angle G'FE = \angle G'EC = \angle H'EC = \frac{1}{2}\angle BAC
so that
∠G′FA=∠G′FE+∠EFA=12∠BAC+12(180∘−∠FAE)=90∘. \angle G'FA = \angle G'FE + \angle EFA = \frac{1}{2}\angle BAC + \frac{1}{2}(180^\circ - \angle FAE) = 90^\circ.
Hence FG′FG' is a diameter of the incircle and the desired equality G′=GG' = G follows.

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