Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / NMO Selection Tests for JBMO /41 of 58

NMO Selection Tests for JBMO

Geometry Difficulty 6.3 National Olympiad Prove it Romania

In an acute triangle ABCABC with AB<BCAB < BC let BB′BB' be an altitude, and let OO be the circumcenter. A line through B′B' parallel to COCO meets BOBO at XX. Prove that XX and the midpoints of ABAB and ACAC are collinear.

Caucasus Mathematical Olympiad

Figure 1

Solution

Let MM be the midpoint of the side ABAB. Then ∠OBC=∠OCB=90∘−∠A\angle OBC = \angle OCB = 90^\circ - \angle A and MXMX parallel to BCBC comes to ∠MXB=90∘−∠A\angle MXB = 90^\circ - \angle A. But ∠B′XB=∠XOC=2∠OBC=180∘−2∠A\angle B'XB = \angle XOC = 2\angle OBC = 180^\circ - 2\angle A. In the triangle ABB′ABB' we have MA=MB=MB′MA = MB = MB' and ∠BMB′=∠MAB′+∠MB′A=2∠A\angle BMB' = \angle MAB' + \angle MB'A = 2\angle A. It follows that the quadrilateral MBXB′MBXB' is cyclic, hence ∠MXB=∠MB′B=∠ABB′=∠OBC\angle MXB = \angle MB'B = \angle ABB' = \angle OBC, which leads to the conclusion.

Second solution. Let KK the projection of BB onto the parallel through AA to the line BCBC. The quadrilateral AKBB′AKBB' is cyclic, hence ∠AB′K=∠ABK=90∘−∠B=∠OCA=∠CB′X\angle AB'K = \angle ABK = 90^\circ - \angle B = \angle OCA = \angle CB'X. It follows that points K,B′K, B' and XX are collinear. Finally, the triangle BXKBXK is isosceles, with BX=KXBX = KX, therefore XX lies on the perpendicular bisector of the line segment BKBK, i.e. XX is on the midline of triangle ABCABC that is parallel to BCBC. We have ∠XBK=90∘−∠OBC=∠A=∠XKB\angle XBK = 90^\circ - \angle OBC = \angle A = \angle XKB (from the cyclic quadrilateral AKBB′AKBB'). The conclusion follows readily.

Third solution. (Given by Alexandru Mihalcu.) Let SS be the midpoint of the line segment ACAC and TT be the intersection point of lines BXBX and ACAC. As OSOS is parallel to BB′BB', we have B′SST=OBOT=OCOT=B′XXT\frac{B'S}{ST} = \frac{OB}{OT} = \frac{OC}{OT} = \frac{B'X}{XT}. From the converse of the Angle Bisector Theorem it follows that XSXS is the angle bisector of ∠B′XT\angle B'XT. Then ∠SXT=∠B′XT2=∠XOC2=∠OBC\angle SXT = \frac{\angle B'XT}{2} = \frac{\angle XOC}{2} = \angle OBC, and the conclusion follows.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,604 problems in a working order, from Junior Challenge level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.