Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Equilateral triangles ABD\triangle ABD, ACE\triangle ACE, and BCF\triangle BCF are drawn outside ABC\triangle ABC on each of its sides, with centers GG, HH, and II, respectively.

a) Prove that GHI\triangle GHI is equilateral.

b) Let GG', HH', and II' be the reflections of GG, HH, and II across ABAB, BCBC, and CACA, respectively. Prove that GHI\triangle GHI and GHI\triangle G'H'I' have the same circumcenter.

Solution

Solution:

Figure 1

a) Let OO be the intersection of circles ABDABD and ACEACE (besides AA). Since opposite angles in a cyclic quadrilateral sum to 180180^\circ, AOB=AOC=120\angle AOB = \angle AOC = 120^\circ, so BOC=120\angle BOC = 120^\circ as well. Thus, quadrilateral BOCFBOCF is also cyclic. Since AA and OO are the two intersection points of circles with centers GG and HH, AOGHAO \perp GH. Similarly, BOGIBO \perp GI. Since AOB=120\angle AOB = 120^\circ, GHI=60\angle GHI = 60^\circ. Similarly, HGI=HIG=60\angle HGI = \angle HIG = 60^\circ, so GHI\triangle GHI is equilateral.

b) We can use similar logic to show that GHI\triangle G'H'I' is equilateral as well (since GG', HH', and II' are the centers of equilateral triangles drawn in the opposite direction on each side of ABC\triangle ABC).

Next, we claim that
CHICHIABC. \triangle CHI' \cong \triangle CH'I \sim \triangle ABC.
We can see that CHCH' is a 6060^\circ rotation of CHCH about point CC, and CICI is a 6060^\circ rotation of CICI' about CC in the same direction. Also, ACH\triangle ACH and BCI\triangle BCI are isosceles triangles with base angle 3030^\circ. Thus,
CH=CH=AC/3,CI=CI=BC/3,HCI=ACB=HCI. \begin{array}{r} CH = CH' = AC / \sqrt{3}, \\ CI' = CI = BC / \sqrt{3}, \\ \angle HCI' = \angle ACB = \angle H'CI. \end{array}
The desired similarity and congruence follows by SAS, and we conclude that
IH=IH=AB/3=GG. IH' = I'H = AB / \sqrt{3} = GG'.
By similar logic,
HH=IG=GI. HH' = IG' = G'I.
Thus by SSS,
IHHHIGGGI. \triangle IHH' \cong \triangle HI'G \cong \triangle GG'I.
Thus, the vertices of GHI\triangle G'H'I' are positioned symmetrically with respect to the sides of GHI\triangle GHI, and it follows that the two equilateral triangles have the same center.

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