In an acute scalene triangle , points , , lie on sides , , , respectively, such that , , . Altitudes , , meet at orthocenter . Points and lie on segment such that and . Lines and intersect at point . Compute .
Solutions — 3
Solution 1
It suffices to show that
which we remark is equivalent to showing that and are harmonic conjugates. Applying Ceva's theorem to triangle and cevians , , and gives
Applying Menelaus's theorem to triangle and line yields
Equating the left-hand sides of the last two equations gives (29), completing the proof.
Solution 2
Consider the diagram shown above. We present another proof of (29). Let and . In right triangles and , we have and . Dividing the last two equations gives
Applying the Law of Sines in triangles EHS and AFS gives
Dividing the last two equations yields
Because , is cyclic, from which it follows that and . Substituting the last two equations into (31) yields
It is clear that right triangles CHE and CAF are similar to each other. Hence
Substituting the last equation into (32) gives
Combining the last equation with (30) gives (29), and we are done.
Solution 3
Consider the diagram shown above. Because , is cyclic, from which it follows that . Likewise, . Because , is cyclic, from which it follows that . Therefore, we have ; that is, bisects . Likewise, bisects and bisects . Hence is the incenter of triangle . Let denote the incircle of triangle .
Because and is the interior bisector of , is the exterior bisector of . Likewise, is the exterior bisector of . Consequently, is the excenter (opposite ) of triangle . Let denote the excircle of triangle centered at .
Consider the dilation centered at sending to . Because , line is sent to line . Let be the point on diametrically opposite (so and are collinear). Then, we see that is sent to by this dilation. In particular, are collinear. Hence, is the intersection of lines and , so . We therefore have that .