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Saudi Booklet

Geometry Difficulty 6.5 National Olympiad Prove it Saudi Arabia

Let ABCABC be a triangle with incentre II such that AB<AC<BCAB < AC < BC. The second intersections of AIAI, BIBI and CICI with the circumcircle of triangle ABCABC are MAM_A, MBM_B and MCM_C, respectively. Lines AIAI and BCBC intersect at DD and lines BMCBM_C and CMBCM_B intersect at XX. Suppose the circumcircles of triangles XMBMCXM_B M_C and XBCXBC intersect again at S≠XS \ne X. Lines BXBX and CXCX intersect the circumcircle of triangle SXMASXM_A again at P≠XP \ne X and Q≠XQ \ne X, respectively. Prove that the circumcentre of triangle SIDSID lies on PQPQ.

Solution

Let OO be the circumcentre of triangle ABCABC. First we note from standard properties of the Miquel point SS, we have:
∙ △SMCMB∼△SBC∼△SPQ;(∗) \bullet \ \triangle SM_C M_B \sim \triangle SBC \sim \triangle SPQ; (*)
* I and S are inverses with respect to circle ABCABC;
* ∠OSX=90∘\angle OSX = 90^\circ.
Figure 1
From the above we have △OMAI∼△OSMA\triangle OM_A I \sim \triangle OSM_A and
∠MAPB=∠MASX=90∘+∠MASO=90∘+∠OMAI=∠MABA=∠CDA. \angle M_A PB = \angle M_A SX = 90^\circ + \angle M_A SO = 90^\circ + \angle OM_A I = \angle M_A BA = \angle CDA.
Observe that ∠PMCMA=∠BMCMA=∠DAC\angle PM_C M_A = \angle BM_C M_A = \angle DAC and ∠MCMAB=∠ICD\angle M_C M_A B = \angle ICD. Combining these with ∠MAPB=∠CDA\angle M_A PB = \angle CDA shows MCPMAB∼ADCIM_C PM_A B \sim ADCI. Therefore, we have MCBBP=AIID\frac{M_C B}{BP} = \frac{AI}{ID}. Similarly, MBCCQ=AIID\frac{M_B C}{CQ} = \frac{AI}{ID}. Thus we get
MCBBP=MBCCQ=AIID.(**) \frac{M_C B}{BP} = \frac{M_B C}{CQ} = \frac{AI}{ID}. \qquad (\text{**})
Now, observe that ∠ICB=∠AMBMC\angle ICB = \angle AM_B M_C and ∠CBI=∠MBMCA\angle CBI = \angle M_B M_C A which gives that △IBC∼△AMCMB\triangle IBC \sim \triangle AM_C M_B. This, combined with (**), is enough to show △DPQ∼△IBC\triangle DPQ \sim \triangle IBC by linearity, thus DPDQ=IBIC\frac{DP}{DQ} = \frac{IB}{IC}.
Combining △IBMC∼△ICMB\triangle IBM_C \sim \triangle ICM_B with (***) shows IBMCP∼ICMBQIBM_C P \sim ICM_B Q, thus IPIQ=IBIC\frac{IP}{IQ} = \frac{IB}{IC}. Finally, we have that
SPSQ=SBSC=BMCCMB=IBIC \frac{SP}{SQ} = \frac{SB}{SC} = \frac{BM_C}{CM_B} = \frac{IB}{IC}
from (*) and △IBMC∼△ICMB\triangle IBM_C \sim \triangle ICM_B. Putting this together with above ratios, we have
IBIC=DPDQ=IPIQ=SPSQ \frac{IB}{IC} = \frac{DP}{DQ} = \frac{IP}{IQ} = \frac{SP}{SQ}
which shows that circle SIDSID is an Apollonius circle with respect to PP and QQ, giving the desired conclusion.

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