Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /96 of 397

Geometry Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it Taiwan

Let ABCDABCD be a convex quadrilateral in which sides ADAD and BCBC are not parallel. Suppose that the two circles with diameters ABAB and CDCD meet at two points E,FE, F inside the quadrilateral ABCDABCD. From EE, drop perpendiculars to the lines AB,BCAB, BC and CDCD respectively, obtaining three feet of perpendicular Q,RQ, R and SS. Let the circle ωE\omega_E denote the circle passing through the three points Q,RQ, R and SS. Similarly, let the circle ωF\omega_F denote the circle passing through the three feet of perpendicular obtained by dropping perpendiculars from FF to the three sides CD,DACD, DA and ABAB respectively. Prove that the midpoint of segment EFEF lies on the line joining the two intersection points of circles ωE\omega_E and ωF\omega_F.

Solution

(1) Let P,Q,R,SP, Q, R, S denote respectively the feet of the perpendiculars from EE to DA,AB,BC,CDDA, AB, BC, CD. Note that P,Q,A,EP, Q, A, E are concyclic, so QPE=QAE\angle QPE = \angle QAE. Similarly, QRE=QBE\angle QRE = \angle QBE.
Therefore, QPE+QRE=QAE+QBE=90\angle QPE + \angle QRE = \angle QAE + \angle QBE = 90^\circ (since EE lies on the circle with diameter ABAB.) Similarly, SPE=SRE=90\angle SPE = \angle SRE = 90^\circ, hence QPS+QRS=90+90=180\angle QPS + \angle QRS = 90^\circ + 90^\circ = 180^\circ, so P,Q,R,SP, Q, R, S all lie on ωE\omega_E. By symmetry, the four feet of perpendicular from FF to the four sides of ABCDABCD also all lie on ωF\omega_F.

(2) Extend ADAD and BCBC to meet at KK; without loss of generality, assume AA lies on segment DKDK. We show below that CKD\angle CKD is acute.
If not, then the circle with diameter CDCD would contain CKD\triangle CKD, and hence would contain the entire quadrilateral ABCDABCD, so that E,FE, F could not lie inside the quadrilateral ABCDABCD, a contradiction. Therefore, CKD\angle CKD is acute, and thus the line EPEP must meet segment BCBC at some point PP', and the line ERER must also meet segment ADAD at some point RR'.

Figure 1

(3) We next show that PP' and RR' also lie on ωE\omega_E. The proof is as follows.
Note that R,E,Q,BR, E, Q, B are concyclic, so by (1),
QRK=QRB=QEB=90QBE=QAE=QPE=QPP, \angle QRK = \angle QRB = \angle QEB = 90^\circ - \angle QBE = \angle QAE = \angle QPE = \angle QPP',
which shows that PP' lies on the circle ωE\omega_E. Similarly, RR' also lies on the circle ωE\omega_E.

(4) Analogous to (1) through (3), let M,NM, N denote respectively the feet of the perpendiculars from FF to ADAD and BCBC, and let M=FMBC,N=FNADM' = FM \cap BC, N' = FN \cap AD. By the same reasoning, we know that M,NM', N' both lie on ωF\omega_F.
Figure 2
Figure 2

(5) Now, let UU be the intersection point of NNNN' and PPPP', and let VV be the intersection point of MMMM' and RRRR'. Note that N,P,N,PN, P', N', P are concyclic, so UN×UN=UP×UPUN \times UN' = UP \times UP', and hence UU lies on the line joining the two intersection points of circles ωE\omega_E and ωF\omega_F. Similarly, VV also lies on the line joining the two intersection points of circles ωE\omega_E and ωF\omega_F.

(6) Finally, since EUFVEUFV is a parallelogram, the midpoint of EFEF lies on UVUV, and hence lies on the line joining the two intersection points of circles ωE\omega_E and ωF\omega_F. Q.E.D.

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 translated into English from zh; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.