Maths Olympiad Prep

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India competition problems

Geometry Difficulty 6.8 National Olympiad Prove it India

Let ABCABC be an acute-angled triangle with incentre II. Draw a line perpendicular to BIBI at II and let it intersect BCBC and BABA at DD and EE respectively. Let PP and QQ be respectively the incentres of the triangles BIABIA and BICBIC. Suppose the four points D,E,P,QD, E, P, Q are concyclic. Prove that BA=BCBA = BC.

Solution

Join DEDE and PQPQ. Let SS be the centre of the circle Γ\Gamma passing through E,P,Q,DE, P, Q, D. Let P′P' denote the reflection of PP in BIBI. Since ∠PBI=∠QBI\angle PBI = \angle QBI, it follows that P′P' lies on BQBQ. Since EE and DD are symmetric about the line EIEI, and PP and P′P' are also symmetric about BIBI, it follows that P′P' lies on Γ\Gamma. Since QQ lies on Γ\Gamma and P′P' lies on the line BQBQ, we conclude that Q=P′Q = P'. This means BIBI is the perpendicular bisector of PQPQ. Since BIBI is already the perpendicular bisector of EDED, it follows that EDED is parallel to PQPQ.
Consider the circumcircle of the triangle AICAIC. We have
Figure 1
∠BIC=180{∘}−(B/2+C/2)=90{∘}+(A/2). \angle BIC = 180^\{\circ\} - (B/2 + C/2) = 90^\{\circ\} + (A/2).
Since ∠BID=90{∘}\angle BID = 90^\{\circ\}, we see that ∠DIC=A/2=∠IAC\angle DIC = A/2 = \angle IAC. Hence EDED is tangent to the circumcircle of △AIC\triangle AIC at II. Hence the circumcentre of the triangle AICAIC lies on the line BSBS. This implies that BSBS is the perpendicular bisector of ACAC as well. It follows that ED∥ACED \parallel AC. Thus PQ∥ED∥ABPQ \parallel ED \parallel AB.
Since BSBS is the perpendicular bisector of PQPQ and that of ACAC, we see that PQCAPQCA is an isosceles trapezium. Hence P,Q,C,AP, Q, C, A are concyclic. This gives ∠PAC=∠QCA\angle PAC = \angle QCA. Therefore ∠A=∠C\angle A = \angle C and hence BA=BCBA = BC.

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