Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /5 of 31

Geometry Difficulty 7.9 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Baltic Way

Given two circles on the plane do not intersect. We choose diameters A1B1A_1B_1 and A2B2A_2B_2 of these circles such that the segments A1A2A_1A_2 and B1B2B_1B_2 intersect. Let AA and BB be the midpoints of segments A1A2A_1A_2 and B1B2B_1B_2, CC be its intersection point. Prove that the orthocenter of the triangle ABCABC belongs to the fixed line that does not depend on the choice of the diameters.

Solution

Figure 1

Prove that the orthocenter HH of ABC\triangle ABC belongs to their radical axis.
Denote the circles by s1s_1 and s2s_2. Let the line A1A2A_1A_2 intersect circles s1s_1 and s2s_2 second time in points X1X_1 and X2X_2 respectively, and the line B1B2B_1B_2 intersect the circles second time in points Y1Y_1 and Y2Y_2.
The lines A1Y1A_1Y_1 and A2Y2A_2Y_2 are parallel (because both of them are orthogonal to B1B2B_1B_2), analogously B1X1B_1X_1 and B2X2B_2X_2 are parallel. Hence these four lines form a parallelogram KLMNKLMN (see fig.). It is clear that perpendiculars from the point AA to the line BCBC and from the point BB to the line ACAC lay on the midlines of this parallelogram. Therefore HH is the center of parallelogram KLMNKLMN and coincide with the midpoint of segment KMKM.
In order to prove that HH lies on the radical axis of s1s_1 and s2s_2 it is sufficient to show that both points KK and MM belong to that radical axis.
The points X1X_1 and Y2Y_2 lie on the circle s3s_3 with diameter B1A2B_1A_2. The line B1X1B_1X_1 is radical axis of s1s_1 and s3s_3, and the line A2Y2A_2Y_2 is radical axis of s2s_2 and s3s_3. Therefore kk is radical center of these three circles and hence KK lies on the radical axis of s1s_1 and s2s_2. Analogously MM lies on the radical axis of s1s_1 and s2s_2.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.