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Geometry Difficulty 6.3 National Olympiad Prove it Italy

Problem:

Let ABCABC be an acute triangle, let MM be the midpoint of BCBC, and let HH be the foot of the altitude from BB. Denote by QQ the center of the circle circumscribed to triangle ABMABM, and by XX the intersection between the altitude BHBH and the perpendicular bisector of BCBC.
Prove that the following two facts are equivalent:
(i) the circle circumscribed to triangle ACMACM, the circle circumscribed to triangle AXHAXH, and the line CQCQ pass through the same point;
(ii) the lines BQBQ and CQCQ are perpendicular.

Solution

Solution:

Let YY be the projection of XX onto ABAB. We prove that the circles circumscribed to triangles AMCAMC and AXHAXH both pass through YY. This is equivalent to proving that BYBA=BMBCBY \cdot BA = BM \cdot BC, and this in turn is true since both products equal BXBHBX \cdot BH, since the quadrilaterals AYXHAYXH and HXMCHXMC are cyclic, both having by construction a pair of opposite right angles.

At this point the thesis has become that the points Y,Q,CY, Q, C are collinear if and only if BQBQ and CQCQ are perpendicular.

Let us now denote by θ\theta the measure of angle BAMBAM. From the cyclicity of AYMCAYMC we know that YCB=θ\angle YCB = \theta. Moreover QBC=90θ\angle QBC = 90^\circ - \theta, since in the isosceles triangle BQMBQM the angle at the vertex QQ has measure 2θ2\theta (here we are using that QQ is the circumcenter of ABMABM and central angles are twice the inscribed angles). It follows that Y,Q,CY, Q, C are collinear if and only if BCQ=BCY=θ\angle BCQ = \angle BCY = \theta, that is, if and only if BCQ+QBC=90\angle BCQ + \angle QBC = 90^\circ, that is, if and only if BQBQ and CQCQ are perpendicular.

Figure 1

Remark A posteriori, in the configuration in which BQBQ and CQCQ are perpendicular, the triangle BQMBQM turns out to be equilateral. It follows that BQM=60\angle BQM = 60^\circ, and hence θ=30\theta = 30^\circ.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.