Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2022

Geometry Difficulty 8.4 Shortlist Prove it Balkan Mathematical Olympiad

Let ABCABC be a triangle and let the tangent at BB to its circumcircle meet the internal bisector of angle AA at PP. The line through PP parallel to ACAC meets ABAB at QQ. Assume that QQ lies in the interior of segment ABAB and let the line through QQ parallel to BCBC meet ACAC at XX and PCPC at YY. Prove that PXPX is tangent to the circumcircle of triangle XYCXYC.

Solution

Figure 1
Since BPBP is tangent to the circumcircle and BRACBR \parallel AC, we have PBZ=BAC=TBR\angle PBZ = \angle BAC = \angle TBR. It follows that the right-angled triangles RTBRTB and PZBPZB are similar and therefore PZRT=PBRB\frac{PZ}{RT} = \frac{PB}{RB}.

Analogously the triangles REBREB and PDBPDB are also similar and therefore PDRE=PBRB\frac{PD}{RE} = \frac{PB}{RB}.

Since PP, RR belong on the bisector of AA, we have that PD=PLPD = PL and RT=RMRT = RM so from the results of the previous two paragraphs we get that PLRE=PZRM\frac{PL}{RE} = \frac{PZ}{RM}.

The quadrilaterals ZPLCZPLC and ERMCERMC are cyclic, therefore ZPL=180ECL=ERM\angle ZPL = 180^\circ - \angle ECL = \angle ERM. Together with the previous result we get that the triangles ZPLZPL and MREMRE are similar. Using this together with properties of cyclic quadrilaterals and the fact that BCXYBC \parallel XY we get that
XYC=ZCP=ZLP=MER=MCR \angle XYC = \angle ZCP = \angle ZLP = \angle MER = \angle MCR
Since BRACQPBR \parallel AC \parallel QP and QXBCQX \parallel BC we get
APPR=AQQB=AXXC \frac{AP}{PR} = \frac{AQ}{QB} = \frac{AX}{XC}
which implies that XPCRXP \parallel CR. Thus PXC=RCM=XYC\angle PXC = \angle RCM = \angle XYC. So the result follows.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.