Problem:
Let be a triangle with incenter . The incircle of is tangent to sides , , at , , . Let denote the orthocenter of triangle , and let denote the midpoint of the altitude from to . Prove that bisects .
Problem:
Let be a triangle with incenter . The incircle of is tangent to sides , , at , , . Let denote the orthocenter of triangle , and let denote the midpoint of the altitude from to . Prove that bisects .
Solution:
Without loss of generality, . Let and be the projections of and onto lines and , respectively. Then , so quadrilateral is cyclic. But then
and so we find that lies on line . Similarly, lies on line .
Observe that is the orthocenter of triangle . Then it is well-known that is the incenter of triangle . Moreover, is the intersection of the external angle bisectors of and . So it is the center of the circle tangent to and the extensions of rays and past and .
Let be the foot of the altitude from to , noting that is in fact the midpoint of . Let be the tangency point of the to . Consider the homothety which takes the incircle of to the circle ; it sends to the point diametrically opposite on . Call this point ; we see are collinear by the homothety mentioned. Moreover, are collinear. As is the midpoint of and is the midpoint of , it follows that the points are collinear, which is what we wanted to prove.
