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Geometry Difficulty 6.0 National Olympiad Prove it United States

Problem:

Point DD lies inside the triangle ABCABC. If A1A_1, B1B_1, and C1C_1 are the second intersection points of the lines ADAD, BDBD, and CDCD with the circles circumscribed about BDC\triangle BDC, CDA\triangle CDA, and ADB\triangle ADB, prove that
ADAA1+BDBB1+CDCC1=1 \frac{AD}{AA_1} + \frac{BD}{BB_1} + \frac{CD}{CC_1} = 1

Solution

Solution:

Let kk be the circle with center DD and radius 11. Consider the inversion with respect to the circle kk and denote by AA^*, BB^*, CC^*, A1A_1^*, B1B_1^*, and C1C_1^* the images of AA, BB, CC, A1A_1, B1B_1, and C1C_1, respectively.

Figure 1

The point C1C_1^* belongs to the line ABA^* B^*, because the circumcircle of ADB\triangle ADB is mapped to a line. Similarly, B1BCB_1^* \in B^* C^* and A1ABA_1^* \in A^* B^*. DD belongs to the line AA1A^* A_1^* and AD=1ADAD = \frac{1}{A^* D}. Using similar reasoning we get that DD is the intersection of AA1A^* A_1^*, BB1B^* B_1^*, and CC1C^* C_1^* and the desired equality now becomes equivalent to
A1DAA1+B1DBB1+C1DCC1=1 \frac{A_1^* D}{A^* A_1^*} + \frac{B_1^* D}{B^* B_1^*} + \frac{C_1^* D}{C^* C_1^*} = 1
Notice that A1DAA1=SBCDSBCA\frac{A_1^* D}{A^* A_1^*} = \frac{S_{\triangle B^* C^* D}}{S_{\triangle B^* C^* A^*}}. Analogous relations for the remaining two fractions on the left-hand side further transform our claim to:
SBCDSABC+SCADSABC+SABDSABC=1 \frac{S_{\triangle B^* C^* D}}{S_{\triangle A^* B^* C^*}} + \frac{S_{\triangle C^* A^* D}}{S_{\triangle A^* B^* C^*}} + \frac{S_{\triangle A^* B^* D}}{S_{\triangle A^* B^* C^*}} = 1
which is obviously true.

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