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Geometry Difficulty 7.3 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Hong Kong

Given a triangle ABCABC, let MM be the midpoint of BCBC. The circle passing through AA and tangent to BCBC at MM cuts ABAB and ACAC at DD and EE respectively. Suppose B,C,EB, C, E and DD are concyclic. Show that AB=ACAB = AC.

Solution

Firstly, consider the power of BB with respect to (ADME)(ADME). This gives
BD×BA=BM2. BD \times BA = BM^2.
Similarly, we get
CE×CA=CM2 CE \times CA = CM^2
by considering the power of CC with respect to the same circle. As MM is the midpoint of BCBC, the two expressions are equal, so that
BD×BA=CE×CA.(1) BD \times BA = CE \times CA. \qquad (1)
Next, since B,C,E,DB, C, E, D are concyclic, we have
AD×AB=AE×AC(2) AD \times AB = AE \times AC \qquad (2)
by considering the power of AA. Adding (1) and (2), we get
AB2=AB×BD+AB×AD=AC×CE+AC×AE=AC2. AB^2 = AB \times BD + AB \times AD = AC \times CE + AC \times AE = AC^2.
This gives AB=ACAB = AC.

Figure 1

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