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Geometry Difficulty 8.6 Shortlist Prove it Slovenia

Let ABCDEFABCDEF be a cyclic hexagon, such that ADAD is the diameter of its circumcircle and the lines BFBF and CECE are parallel. Let KK be the intersection of the segments ACAC and BDBD, let LL be the intersection of the segments AEAE and DFDF and let MM be the midpoint of the segment KLKL. Prove that MC=ME|MC| = |ME|.

Solution

The segments BFBF and CECE are parallel, so the quadrilateral FBCEFBCE is an isosceles trapezoid and BC=EF|BC| = |EF|. The inscribed angles over the chords BCBC and EFEF are equal, EDF=BDC\angle EDF = \angle BDC. Let EDF=α\angle EDF = \alpha. The segment ADAD is the diameter of a circle, so by Thales' theorem we have AED=π2=DCA\angle AED = \frac{\pi}{2} = \angle DCA. From here we get ELD=π2EDL=π2α\angle ELD = \frac{\pi}{2} - \angle EDL = \frac{\pi}{2} - \alpha, so ELF=π2+α\angle ELF = \frac{\pi}{2} + \alpha. Similarly, DKC=π2KDC=π2α\angle DKC = \frac{\pi}{2} - \angle KDC = \frac{\pi}{2} - \alpha, so CKB=π2+α\angle CKB = \frac{\pi}{2} + \alpha.

Figure 1

We have shown that ELF=CKB\angle ELF = \angle CKB and BC=EF|BC| = |EF|. The angles ELF\angle ELF and CKB\angle CKB over the two chords EFEF and BCBC of equal length are equal. If we somehow map the triangle ELFELF so that EE gets mapped to CC, FF gets mapped to BB and the image of LL lies on the same side of the line BCBC as KK, then we will get a cyclic quadrilateral. The mapping with these properties is the reflection over the line of symmetry of the trapezoid FBCEFBCE. Denote this line by \ell.

Let KK' be the image of the point KK and let LL' be the image of the point LL under the reflection over \ell. Obviously, \ell is the line of symmetry of the quadrilateral LLKKLL'KK'. This quadrilateral is an isosceles trapezoid (because LLLL' and KKKK' are parallel). Its diagonals KLKL and KLK'L' intersect on \ell. We wish to show that the intersection of the diagonals is also the midpoint of each of them, which means we wish to show that LLKKLL'KK' is a rectangle. It suffices to show that the segment LKL'K is parallel to \ell.

Let AA' be the image of AA and let DD' be the image of DD under the reflection over \ell. The point LL' is the intersection of the lines BDBD' and ACA'C. Since ABCDA'BCD is a cyclic quadrilateral, we have ADB=ACB\angle A'DB = \angle A'CB. The points K,L,BK, L', B and CC are concyclic, so LKB=LCB=ACB\angle L'KB = \angle L'CB = \angle A'CB. Hence, ADB=LKB\angle A'DB = \angle L'KB and the line KLKL' is parallel to the line ADA'D. The quadrilateral AADDAA'DD' is a rectangle (the reflection makes it so that the segment AAAA' is parallel to the segment DDDD', but ADAD and ADA'D' are the diameters, so ADD=π/2\angle AD'D = \pi/2 and ADD=π/2\angle A'DD' = \pi/2). So, the segment ADA'D is parallel to \ell, which implies that KLKL' \parallel \ell. So, LLKKLL'KK' is a rectangle and its diagonals bisect each other. Their intersection lies on \ell. Since MM lies on \ell the distances of MM to the points CC and EE are the same.

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