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Geometry Difficulty 5.9 AIME, harder Prove it Ireland

Tangents at points AA and BB on a circle, centre OO, meet at PP. The point AA is joined to the mid-point MM of PBPB meeting the circle again at CC. The line through CC and the mid-point DD of POPO meets the circle again at EE. Prove AEPOAE \parallel PO.

Solution

Let AMAM meet POPO at FF and let POPO extended meet the circle at GG and HH with GG between PP and OO. Let ABAB meet POPO at QQ.

Figure 1

First note that FF is the centroid of ABP\triangle ABP and so FQ=13PQ|FQ| = \frac{1}{3}|PQ|. Using that DD is the mid-point of POPO and denoting the radius of the circle by rr, we obtain
DF=DQFQ=DOQOFQ=12POQO13PQ=12(PQ+QO)QO13PQ=16PQ12QO, \begin{aligned} |DF| &= |DQ| - |FQ| = |DO| - |QO| - |FQ| = \frac{1}{2}|PO| - |QO| - \frac{1}{3}|PQ| \\ &= \frac{1}{2}(|PQ| + |QO|) - |QO| - \frac{1}{3}|PQ| = \frac{1}{6}|PQ| - \frac{1}{2}|QO|, \end{aligned}
FG=FQGQ=13PQGQ=13PQr+QO,FH=FQ+QO+r=13PQ+QO+r. \begin{aligned} |FG| &= |FQ| - |GQ| = \frac{1}{3}|PQ| - |GQ| = \frac{1}{3}|PQ| - r + |QO|, \\ |FH| &= |FQ| + |QO| + r = \frac{1}{3}|PQ| + |QO| + r. \end{aligned}
From this we obtain
FGFH=(13PQ+QOr)(13PQ+QO+r)=(13PQ+QO)2r2=19PQ2+23PQQO+QO2r22DFFQ=23PQ(16PQ12QO)=19PQ213PQQO. \begin{aligned} |FG| \cdot |FH| &= \left(\frac{1}{3}|PQ| + |QO| - r\right) \left(\frac{1}{3}|PQ| + |QO| + r\right) \\ &= \left(\frac{1}{3}|PQ| + |QO|\right)^2 - r^2 \\ &= \frac{1}{9}|PQ|^2 + \frac{2}{3}|PQ| \cdot |QO| + |QO|^2 - r^2 \\ 2|DF| \cdot |FQ| &= \frac{2}{3}|PQ| \left(\frac{1}{6}|PQ| - \frac{1}{2}|QO|\right) = \frac{1}{9}|PQ|^2 - \frac{1}{3}|PQ| \cdot |QO|. \end{aligned}
Using that APO\triangle APO is a right triangle, we get PQQO=AQ2|PQ| \cdot |QO| = |AQ|^2. Pythagoras gives r2QO2=AQ2r^2 - |QO|^2 = |AQ|^2, hence r2QO2=PQQOr^2 - |QO|^2 = |PQ| \cdot |QO|. Therefore
23PQQO+QO2r2=13PQQO \frac{2}{3}|PQ| \cdot |QO| + |QO|^2 - r^2 = -\frac{1}{3}|PQ| \cdot |QO|
and we arrive at
FGFH=2DFFQ. |FG| \cdot |FH| = 2|DF| \cdot |FQ|.
Because 2FQ=PF2|FQ| = |PF| and the power of FF with respect to the given circle is FGFH=FCFA|FG| \cdot |FH| = |FC| \cdot |FA|, we can rewrite this as
FCFADF=DFPFFA i.e. FCDF=PFFA. \begin{aligned} \frac{|FC| \cdot |FA|}{|DF|} &= \frac{|DF| \cdot |PF|}{|FA|} \quad \text{ i.e. } \\ \frac{|FC|}{|DF|} &= \frac{|PF|}{|FA|}. \end{aligned}
This shows that the triangles DFCDFC and AFPAFP are similar and so CDF=PAF\angle CDF = \angle PAF. As PAPA is tangent to the circle at AA we also have AEC=PAF\angle AEC = \angle PAF, hence CDF=AEC\angle CDF = \angle AEC which shows that POPO and AEAE are parallel.

Figure 1

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