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National Math Olympiad in Slovenia

Geometry Difficulty 6.2 National Olympiad Prove it Slovenia

Let DD be a point on the side ABAB of the triangle ABCABC. The circumcircles of the triangles BCDBCD and ACDACD meet the lines ACAC and BCBC again at points EE and FF, respectively. The bisector of the segment EFEF intersects the line ABAB at MM and meets the altitude to ABAB from DD at NN. Let TT be the intersection of the lines ABAB and EFEF, and let UU be the intersection of the line CTCT and the circumcircle of the triangle CDMCDM. Prove that ∣NC∣=∣NU∣|NC| = |NU|.

Solution

First, we will show that the points EE, DD, MM, FF and NN are concyclic.

Let the circumcircle of the triangle EDFEDF intersect the line ABAB at M1M_1. The quadrilaterals BCEDBCED and AFDCAFDC are cyclic, so ∠M1EF=∠M1DF=∠ACB=∠EDA=∠EFM1\angle M_1EF = \angle M_1DF = \angle ACB = \angle EDA = \angle EFM_1. The triangle EM1FEM_1F is isosceles with the apex at M1M_1, so M1M_1 lies on the bisector of the segment EFEF. This implies that M1=MM_1 = M and the points EE, DD, MM and FF are concyclic.

The bisector of the chord EFEF is the diameter of the circle passing through the points EE, DD, MM and FF. We have ∠MDN=π/2\angle MDN = \pi/2 and NN lies on the bisector, so by Thales' theorem NN must also lie on the circle. This means that EE, DD, MM, FF and NN are concyclic.

Now, ∠ENF=π−∠FME=π−∠FDE=π−∠FDA−∠BDE+π=2∠ECF\angle ENF = \pi - \angle FME = \pi - \angle FDE = \pi - \angle FDA - \angle BDE + \pi = 2 \angle ECF. Since NN lies on the bisector of the segment EFEF and ∠ENF=2∠ECF\angle ENF = 2 \angle ECF, we see that NN is the centre of the circumcircle of the triangle EFCEFC.

The quadrilaterals EDMFEDMF and UDMCUDMC are cyclic and by the power of a point theorem we have TE→⋅TF→=TD→⋅TM→=TU→⋅TC→\overrightarrow{TE} \cdot \overrightarrow{TF} = \overrightarrow{TD} \cdot \overrightarrow{TM} = \overrightarrow{TU} \cdot \overrightarrow{TC}. We conclude that UEFCUEFC is also a cyclic quadrilateral. Thus, the points CC and UU both lie on the circle centred at NN and ∣NC∣=∣NU∣|NC| = |NU|.

Figure 1

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