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Geometry Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it Estonia

In a triangle ABCABC the midpoints of BCBC, CACA and ABAB are DD, EE and FF, respectively. Prove that the circumcircles of triangles AEFAEF, BFDBFD and CDECDE intersect all in one point.

Solutions — 3

Solution 1

Let us first assume that triangle ABCABC is not a right triangle – then the circumcenter OO of the triangle ABCABC does not coincide with DD, EE, FF (see fig. 1). As the circumcenter is in the point of intersection of perpendicular bisectors of the sides,

AEO=90=AFO\angle AEO = 90^\circ = \angle AFO, due to which A,E,F,OA, E, F, O are concyclic, so OO is located on the circumcircle of AEFAEF. Analogously OO is also located on the circumcircles of BFDBFD and CDECDE. Therefore OO is the point we are looking for.

In the end let us also look at the case where ABCABC is a right triangle – without loss of generality let ACB=90\angle ACB = 90^\circ (see fig. 2). The circumcircles of triangles AEFAEF and BFDBFD obviously pass through FF. As DFACDF \parallel AC and EFBCEF \parallel BC by midline property, we have DFBCDF \perp BC and EFACEF \perp AC. Therefore also EFD=90\angle EFD = 90^\circ. Since DCE=90\angle DCE = 90^\circ, the line segment DEDE is the diameter of the circumcircle of CDECDE, due to which it also passes through FF. Therefore FF is the point we are looking for.

Figure 1
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 2

Solution 2

Since DEDE, EFEF and FDFD are the midsegments of triangle ABCABC, triangles AEFAEF, FDBFDB and ECDECD are congruent. Therefore their circumcircles also have radii of equal length. Let that length be rr.

Let the circumcenters of AEFAEF, BFDBFD and CDECDE be GG, HH and II, respectively. The circumcenter of a triangle is located in the point of intersection of perpendicular bisectors of the sides, therefore GG is located on the perpendicular bisector of AFAF and HH on the perpendicular bisector of FBFB. As triangles AEFAEF and FDBFDB are congruent, points GG and HH are also located at equal distance from ABAB, due to which the distance between GG and HH is equal to the distance between the perpendicular bisectors of AFAF and FBFB. In conclusion

GH=12AF+12FB=12(AF+FB)=12AB=AF=FB=ED. |GH| = \frac{1}{2}|AF| + \frac{1}{2}|FB| = \frac{1}{2}(|AF| + |FB|) = \frac{1}{2}|AB| = |AF| = |FB| = |ED|.

Analogously HI=BD=DC=FE|HI| = |BD| = |DC| = |FE| and IG=CE=EA=DF|IG| = |CE| = |EA| = |DF|. Hence the triangle GIHGIH is congruent to triangles AEFAEF, FDBFDB and ECDECD and the radius of the circumcircle of GIHGIH is rr. The circumcenter XX of triangle GHIGHI therefore satisfies XG=XH=XI=r|XG| = |XH| = |XI| = r, so XX is located on the circumcircles of AEFAEF, BFDBFD and CDECDE.

Figure 1
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 2

Solution 3

A homothetic transformation with AA being the homothetic center and with scaling factor 12\frac{1}{2} takes point BB to FF and CC to EE, therefore the circumcircle of the triangle ABCABC goes to the circumcircle of triangle AFEAFE. Due to factor 12\frac{1}{2} the circumcircle of AFEAFE passes through the circumcenter OO of triangle ABCABC. Analogously the circumcircles of BFDBFD and CDECDE also pass through OO.

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