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Geometry Difficulty 8.8 Shortlist Prove it Netherlands

Consider an acute triangle ABCABC with AB>CA>BC|AB| > |CA| > |BC|. The vertices DD, EE, and FF are the base points of the altitudes from AA, BB, and CC, respectively. The line through FF parallel to DEDE intersects BCBC in MM. The angular bisector of MFE\angle MFE intersects DEDE in NN. Prove that FF is the circumcentre of DMN\triangle DMN if and only if BB is the circumcentre of FMN\triangle FMN.

Solution

Because of the requirement on the length, the configuration is fixed: MM lies on the ray CBCB past BB, and NN lies on the ray EDED past DD. See the figure. Let α=BAC\alpha = \angle BAC and β=ABC\beta = \angle ABC. Moreover, let HH be the orthocentre of the triangle (in other words: the intersection of ADAD, BEBE, and CFCF). Thales's theorem yields that AFHEAFHE, BDHFBDHF, CEHDCEHD, ABDEABDE, BCEFBCEF, and CAFDCAFD are cyclic. Because of the cyclic quadrilateral ABDEABDE, we get CED=180AED=ABD=β\angle CED = 180^\circ - \angle AED = \angle ABD = \beta and because of the cyclic quadrilateral BCEFBCEF, we get AEF=180CEF=CBF=β\angle AEF = 180^\circ - \angle CEF = \angle CBF = \beta. Analogously, CDE\angle CDE and BDF\angle BDF equal α\alpha.
From CED=β=AEF\angle CED = \beta = \angle AEF it follows that DEH=90β=FEH\angle DEH = 90^\circ - \beta = \angle FEH. Hence, EHEH is the angular bisector of DEF\angle DEF. Because DEFMDE \parallel FM, we get that MFE=180FED=1802(90β)=2β\angle MFE = 180^\circ - \angle FED = 180^\circ - 2(90^\circ - \beta) = 2\beta. As FNFN is the angular bisector of MFE\angle MFE, we have EFN=122β=β\angle EFN = \frac{1}{2} \cdot 2\beta = \beta. Because FEH=90β\angle FEH = 90^\circ - \beta, we also see that FNFN and EHEH are perpendicular, hence EHEH is not only the angular bisector in FEN\triangle FEN, but it is also an altitude. Therefore, this line is also the perpendicular bisector of FNFN. As BB lies on this line, we get BF=BN|BF| = |BN|.
We already saw that CDE=α=BDF\angle CDE = \alpha = \angle BDF. Because DEFMDE \parallel FM, we also have BMF=CDE=α\angle BMF = \angle CDE = \alpha, hence DMF=BMF=BDF=MDF\angle DMF = \angle BMF = \angle BDF = \angle MDF. Thus, FM=FD|FM| = |FD|.
Let SS be the intersection of ACAC with MFMF. Then we have BFM=AFS\angle BFM = \angle AFS and because DEFMDE \parallel FM, we get CED=CSF\angle CED = \angle CSF. The exterior angle theorem in triangle AFSAFS yields that CSF=SAF+AFS=α+AFS\angle CSF = \angle SAF + \angle AFS = \alpha + \angle AFS.

Combining everything, we obtain CED=α+BFM\angle CED = \alpha + \angle BFM. On the other hand, we knew that CED=β\angle CED = \beta, hence BFM=βα\angle BFM = \beta - \alpha. Moreover, we know that BMF=α\angle BMF = \alpha. We conclude that BF=BM|BF| = |BM| if and only if βα=α\beta - \alpha = \alpha, or if and only if β=2α\beta = 2\alpha. Because we already know that BF=BN|BF| = |BN|, we get: BB is the circumcentre of FMN\triangle FMN if and only if β=2α\beta = 2\alpha.
Before, we saw that EHEH is the perpendicular bisector and altitude in triangle EFNEFN, hence this triangle is isosceles with top angle EE, which yields that DNF=ENF=EFN=β\angle DNF = \angle ENF = \angle EFN = \beta. Moreover, we know that CDE=α=BDF\angle CDE = \alpha = \angle BDF, from which it follows that NDF=NDB+BDF=CDE+BDF=2α\angle NDF = \angle NDB + \angle BDF = \angle CDE + \angle BDF = 2\alpha. Hence, FD=FN|FD| = |FN| if and only if β=2α\beta = 2\alpha. Because we already knew that FM=FD|FM| = |FD|, we now get: FF is the circumcentre of DMN\triangle DMN if and only if β=2α\beta = 2\alpha.
We conclude that FF is the circumcentre of DMN\triangle DMN if and only if BB is the circumcentre of FMN\triangle FMN, as both properties are equivalent to β=2α\beta = 2\alpha. \square

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