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Geometry Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it Croatia

The incircle of a scalene triangle ABCABC touches the sides AB\overline{AB} and CA\overline{CA} at the points MM and NN respectively. The excircles opposite to vertices BB and CC touch the line BCBC at points PP and QQ respectively. Prove that the quadrilateral MNPQMNPQ is cyclic if and only if CAB=90\angle CAB = 90^\circ.

Solution

Let BC=a|BC| = a, CA=b|CA| = b and AB=c|AB| = c be the lengths of the sides of the triangle ABCABC and let s=12(a+b+c)s = \frac{1}{2}(a+b+c) be its semiperimeter. Without loss of generality we may assume b<cb < c.
Let SS be the intersection of lines BCBC and MNMN, and let XX be the point where the incircle of the triangle ABCABC touches the side BC\overline{BC}.

Figure 1

Menelaus' theorem applied to the line MNMN and the triangle ABCABC gives
AMBMBSCSCNAN=1. \frac{|AM|}{|BM|} \cdot \frac{|BS|}{|CS|} \cdot \frac{|CN|}{|AN|} = 1.
Since AM=AN=sa|AM| = |AN| = s-a, BM=BX=sb|BM| = |BX| = s-b and CN=CX=sc|CN| = |CX| = s-c, we have
AMBMBXCXCNAN=1, \frac{|AM|}{|BM|} \cdot \frac{|BX|}{|CX|} \cdot \frac{|CN|}{|AN|} = 1,
and hence
BXCX=BSCS=SX+BXSXCX. \frac{|BX|}{|CX|} = \frac{|BS|}{|CS|} = \frac{|SX| + |BX|}{|SX| - |CX|}.
Denoting SX=d|SX| = d gives
sbsc=d+(sb)d(sc), \frac{s-b}{s-c} = \frac{d+(s-b)}{d-(s-c)},
i.e. d(cb)=2(sb)(sc)d(c-b) = 2(s-b)(s-c).
We also have PX=CX+CP=(sc)+(sa)=b|PX| = |CX| + |CP| = (s-c) + (s-a) = b, analogously QX=c|QX| = c and SMSN=SX2|SM| \cdot |SN| = |SX|^2 (by the power of the point SS with respect to the incircle of the triangle ABCABC).
Finally, the following sequence of equivalent statements finishes the proof:
The quadrilateral MNPQMNPQ is cyclic.
    SMSN=SPSQ    SX2=(SXPX)(SX+QX)    d2=(db)(d+c)    d(cb)=bc    2(sb)(sc)=bc    a2(bc)2=2bc    a2=b2+c2    The triangle ABC has a right angle at vertex A. \begin{align*} \iff |SM| \cdot |SN| &= |SP| \cdot |SQ| \\ \iff |SX|^2 &= (|SX| - |PX|)(|SX| + |QX|) \\ \iff d^2 &= (d-b)(d+c) \\ \iff d(c-b) &= bc \\ \iff 2(s-b)(s-c) &= bc \\ \iff a^2 - (b-c)^2 &= 2bc \\ \iff a^2 &= b^2 + c^2 \\ \iff \text{The triangle } ABC \text{ has a right angle at vertex } A. \end{align*}

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