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Romania — NMO Selection Tests for the Balkan and International Mathematical Olympiads

Geometry Difficulty 8.2 Shortlist Prove it Romania

Let ABCABC be a triangle, let OO be its circumcentre, let A′A' be the orthogonal projection of AA on the line BCBC, and let XX be a point on the open ray AA′AA' emanating from AA. The internal bisectrix of the angle BACBAC meets the circumcircle of ABCABC again at DD. Let MM be the midpoint of the segment DXDX. The line through OO and parallel to the line ADAD meets the line DXDX at NN. Prove that the angles BAMBAM and CANCAN are equal.

Solution

Choose a point YY such that AONYAONY is a parallelogram. Since the lines ADAD and ONON are parallel, this point lies on the line ADAD (see Fig. 1). We prove that the triangles AOYAOY and AXDAXD are similar. Since the line ANAN bisects the segment OYOY the conclusion follows.
It is well known that the internal bisectrix ADAD of the angle ABCABC is also the internal bisectrix of the angle OAA′OAA'. Next, the corresponding sides of the triangles ONDOND and ADXADX are parallel, so these triangles are similar.

AY/AO=AD/AXAY/AO = AD/AX. Along with the equality of the angles OAYOAY and DAXDAX, this proves the required similarity of the triangles AOYAOY and AXDAXD.

Let P,Q,R,SP, Q, R, S be the points of intersection of the pairs of lines AMAM and ODOD, OAOA and XDXD, ANAN and ODOD, and ADAD and QRQR, respectively (see Fig. 2). Since the angles MANMAN and PARPAR are the same, we show that ADAD is the internal bisectrix of the latter.
Figure 1

Apply Menelaus' theorem to both triangles DMPDMP and DRSDRS and the transversal AOQAOQ to write
AMAP⋅OPOD⋅QDQM=1andADAS⋅OROD⋅QSQR=1, \frac{AM}{AP} \cdot \frac{OP}{OD} \cdot \frac{QD}{QM} = 1 \quad \text{and} \quad \frac{AD}{AS} \cdot \frac{OR}{OD} \cdot \frac{QS}{QR} = 1,
respectively. Since ODOD and AXAX are parallel and DM=MXDM = MX, it follows that AM=MPAM = MP. In the triangle AQDAQD, the line ONON is parallel to ADAD, so RR lies on the QQ-median, and therefore AS=SDAS = SD. Hence MSMS and PDPD are parallel, so QM/QD=QS/QRQM/QD = QS/QR.

Combining the obtained relations we get
OPOD=QMQD⋅APAM=QSQR⋅ADAS=ODOR, \frac{OP}{OD} = \frac{QM}{QD} \cdot \frac{AP}{AM} = \frac{QS}{QR} \cdot \frac{AD}{AS} = \frac{OD}{OR},
or OD2=OP⋅OROD^2 = OP \cdot OR. Thus, OA2=OP⋅OROA^2 = OP \cdot OR. This shows that the triangles OAROAR and OPAOPA are similar, and ∠OAR=∠OPA\angle OAR = \angle OPA. Finally, by OA=ODOA = OD we obtain ∠RAD=∠OAD−∠OAR=∠ODA−∠OPA=∠DAP\angle RAD = \angle OAD - \angle OAR = \angle ODA - \angle OPA = \angle DAP, as required.

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