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Geometry Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Italy

Problem:

Let ABCABC be a triangle and let II be the center of its inscribed circle. Let DD be the reflection of II with respect to the side ABAB, and let EE be the reflection of II with respect to the side ACAC.
Prove that the circumscribed circles of triangles BIDBID and CIECIE are tangent to each other.

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

Solution:

Let X,Y,ZX, Y, Z be the points of tangency of the inscribed circle with the sides AB,AC,BCAB, AC, BC, respectively. We prove that the line IZIZ is tangent to both circles.

We denote by α,β,γ\alpha, \beta, \gamma the measures of the angles at A,B,CA, B, C, respectively. We denote by TT a point on the line ZIZI, on the opposite side of ZZ with respect to II. Proving that the line ZIZI is tangent to the circumscribed circle of triangle BIDBID is equivalent to proving that DBI=DIT\angle DBI = \angle DIT. We will show that both angles are equal to β\beta.

Indeed, the quadrilateral IXBZIXBZ is cyclic, since it has right angles at XX and ZZ. It follows that TIX=ZBX=β\angle TIX = \angle ZBX = \beta, since both are supplementary to XIZ\angle XIZ. On the other hand DBI=2XBI\angle DBI = 2 \angle XBI (since BXBX is the altitude with respect to the base, and hence also the bisector, in the isosceles triangle DBIDBI) and XBI=β/2\angle XBI = \beta / 2 since BIBI is the bisector of triangle ABCABC.

In a completely analogous way one proves that ECI=EIT=γ\angle ECI = \angle EIT = \gamma.

Figure 1

Solution 2

Solution:

If the circumscribed circles of triangles BIDBID and CIECIE are tangent, then the point of tangency is necessarily II. Denoting by O1O_{1} and O2O_{2} the circumcenters of BIDBID and CIECIE, the claim holds if and only if the points O1,IO_{1}, I and O2O_{2} are collinear.

We denote by α,β,γ\alpha, \beta, \gamma the measures of the angles at A,B,CA, B, C, respectively. Triangle BDIBDI is isosceles, so O1O_{1} belongs to the axis of DIDI, that is, to the line ABAB. The segments O1IO_{1}I and O1BO_{1}B are equal since they are radii, hence triangle O1IBO_{1}IB is isosceles. Moreover the line BIBI is the bisector of the angle at BB. It follows that
O1IB=IBO1=IBC=β2 \angle O_{1}IB = \angle IBO_{1} = \angle IBC = \frac{\beta}{2}
and therefore the lines BCBC and O1IO_{1}I are parallel since they form equal alternate interior angles with the transversal IBIB.

In an analogous way one proves that the line O2IO_{2}I is parallel to BCBC.

But then O1IO_{1}I and O2IO_{2}I are parallel lines passing through II, hence they coincide, that is, the points O1,I,O2O_{1}, I, O_{2} are collinear, from which the claim follows.

Figure 2

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