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Geometry Difficulty 7.5 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it United States

Problem:

Three circles k1k_{1}, k2k_{2}, and k3k_{3} intersect in point OO. Let AA, BB, and CC be the second intersection points (other than OO) of k2k_{2} and k3k_{3}, k1k_{1} and k3k_{3}, and k1k_{1} and k2k_{2}, respectively. Assume that OO lies inside of the triangle ABCABC. Let lines AOAO, BOBO, and COCO intersect circles k1k_{1}, k2k_{2}, and k3k_{3} for a second time at points AA', BB', and CC', respectively. If XY|XY| denotes the length of segment XYXY, prove that
AOAA+BOBB+COCC=1 \frac{|AO|}{|AA'|} + \frac{|BO|}{|BB'|} + \frac{|CO|}{|CC'|} = 1

Solution

Solution:

In this solution we will use a method called Inversion in the Plane.
We invert with respect to point OO with an arbitrary radius rr. We will label the images of objects (points, circles, lines, segments) under this inversion by putting a bar over them. By properties of inversion, the three given circles through OO will invert to three lines not through OO. For instance, circle k1k_{1} will invert to a line k1\overline{k_{1}} through points Bˉ\bar{B}, Cˉ\bar{C}, and A\overline{A'}, and similarly for circles k2k_{2} and k3k_{3}. On the other hand, the original line AOAAOA' will invert to itself (as it passes through the center of inversion OO); now, points AA and AA' will move to, perhaps different, points Aˉ\bar{A} and A\overline{A'} on this same line, while point OO will stay where it is (we shall not apply inversion here to the center of inversion OO). Analogous situations occur for lines BOBBOB' and COCCOC'.

Figure 1
Diagram before inversion
Figure 2
Diagram after inversion, with perpendiculars to BC\overline{BC}

We are ready to describe the new inverted picture. Point OO is inside triangle ABC\overline{ABC}. Three points A\overline{A'}, B\overline{B'}, and C\overline{C'} are chosen on the triangle's sides BC\overline{BC}, CA\overline{CA}, and AB\overline{AB}, respectively, so that the three segments AA\overline{AA'}, BB\overline{BB'}, and CC\overline{CC'} all intersect in point OO (such segments are called cevians in ABC\triangle \overline{ABC}). Two distance formulas relating new to old distances under inversion tell us:
AO=r2OAˉ, and AA=r2AAOAˉOA |AO| = \frac{r^2}{|O\bar{A}|}, \text{ and } |AA'| = \frac{r^2 \cdot |\overline{AA'}|}{|O\bar{A}| \cdot |O\overline{A'}|}
Dividing these two expressions and canceling r2r^2 and OAˉ|O\bar{A}| re-expresses one of the desired ratios completely in terms of the new inverted picture:
AOAA=OAAA \frac{|AO|}{|AA'|} = \frac{|O\overline{A'}|}{|\overline{AA'}|}
Now drop perpendiculars OH1OH_1 and AˉH2\bar{A}H_2 to side BC\overline{BC} as shown in the inverted picture, and call their lengths h1h_1 and h2h_2. This creates two similar triangles: OAH1AAH2\triangle O\overline{A'}H_1 \sim \triangle \overline{AA'}H_2: they share an angle and have another right angle each. Hence, the ratios of corresponding sides are equal:
OAAA=OH1AˉH2=h1h2=h1BC/2h2BC/2=SOBCSABC \frac{|O\overline{A'}|}{|\overline{AA'}|} = \frac{|OH_1|}{|\bar{A}H_2|} = \frac{h_1}{h_2} = \frac{h_1 \cdot |\overline{BC}|/2}{h_2 \cdot |\overline{BC}|/2} = \frac{S_{\triangle O\overline{BC}}}{S_{\triangle \overline{ABC}}}
where h1h_1 and h2h_2 are the lengths of the drawn altitudes OH1OH_1 and AˉH2\bar{A}H_2 in OBC\triangle O\overline{BC} and ABC\triangle \overline{ABC}, respectively. Along the way, we multiplied by BC/2|\overline{BC}|/2 to recreate the standard formulas for the areas of OBCO\overline{BC} and ABC\triangle \overline{ABC}, and denoted correspondingly those areas by SS_{\triangle} in the last ratio.

Of course, we can repeat the above discussion for the other two ratios BOBB\frac{|BO|}{|BB'|} and COCC\frac{|CO|}{|CC'|}, and end up rewriting the desired sum in a completely different way:
AOAA+BOBB+COCC=SOBCSABC+SOCASABC+SOABSABC=SOBC+SOCA+SOABSABC=SABCSABC=1 \frac{|AO|}{|AA'|} + \frac{|BO|}{|BB'|} + \frac{|CO|}{|CC'|} = \frac{S_{\triangle O\overline{BC}}}{S_{\triangle \overline{ABC}}} + \frac{S_{\triangle O\overline{CA}}}{S_{\triangle \overline{ABC}}} + \frac{S_{\triangle O\overline{AB}}}{S_{\triangle \overline{ABC}}} = \frac{S_{\triangle O\overline{BC}} + S_{\triangle O\overline{CA}} + S_{\triangle O\overline{AB}}}{S_{\triangle \overline{ABC}}} = \frac{S_{\triangle \overline{ABC}}}{S_{\triangle \overline{ABC}}} = 1
Here we used the fact that OO is inside ABC\triangle \overline{ABC} so that the three triangles with vertex OO, OBC\triangle O\overline{BC}, OCA\triangle O\overline{CA}, and OAB\triangle O\overline{AB}, make up the whole big ABC\triangle \overline{ABC}, and hence their areas add up to the area of this big triangle.

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