Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.2 National Olympiad Prove it Taiwan

Let AA, BB, CC be the midpoints of sides BCB'C', CAC'A', ABA'B' of ABC\triangle A'B'C', respectively. Let point PP lie in the interior of ABC\triangle ABC, and let APAP, BPBP, CPCP meet BCBC, CACA, ABAB at points PaP_a, PbP_b, PcP_c, respectively.
Lines PaPbP_aP_b, PaPcP_aP_c meet BCB'C' at RbR_b, RcR_c respectively; lines PbPcP_bP_c, PbPaP_bP_a meet CAC'A' at ScS_c, SaS_a respectively; lines PcPaP_cP_a, PcPbP_cP_b meet ABA'B' at TaT_a, TbT_b respectively. It is known that ScS_c, SaS_a, TaT_a, TbT_b all lie on a circle with center OO.
Prove: ORb=ORcOR_b = OR_c.

Solution

First we prove that AA is the midpoint of RbRcR_bR_c: since BCBCBC \parallel B'C', we know ARcBPa=APcPcB\frac{AR_c}{BP_a} = \frac{AP_c}{P_cB} and ARbCPa=APbPbC\frac{AR_b}{CP_a} = \frac{AP_b}{P_bC}. From these two equations and Ceva's theorem, we know ARcARb=APcPcBBPaPaCCPbPbA=1\frac{AR_c}{AR_b} = \frac{AP_c}{P_cB} \cdot \frac{BP_a}{P_aC} \cdot \frac{CP_b}{P_bA} = 1. Clearly RbR_b, RcR_c lie on opposite sides of AA, so AA is the midpoint of RbRcR_bR_c.

Similarly, we can prove that BB is the midpoint of ScSaS_cS_a, and CC is the midpoint of TaTbT_aT_b. Therefore OBCAOB \perp C'A', OCABOC \perp A'B'. Hence OO is the circumcenter of ABC\triangle A'B'C' (or the orthocenter of ABC\triangle ABC). We obtain OABCOA \perp B'C', and hence ORb=ORcOR_b = OR_c.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from zh; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.