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Geometry Difficulty 7.3 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Ukraine

Let ABCABC be an acute triangle with circumcircle ww with center OO. Let A0A_0 and C0C_0 be the second intersection points of ww with the continuation of the altitudes from AA and CC. Let A1A_1 and C1C_1 be the intersection points of the line A0C0A_0C_0 with the sides of the triangle ABAB and BCBC respectively. Let A2A_2 and C2C_2 be the points of ACAC such that A2OBCA_2O \parallel BC, and C2OABC_2O \parallel AB. Let HH – orthocenter of ABC\triangle ABC, TT is the intersection point A1A2A_1A_2 and C1C2C_1C_2. Prove that HTACHT \parallel AC. Suppose that the tangents to ww at AA and at BB meet at a point KK.
(Anton Trygub)

Solution

For now let's consider the points A0A_0, A1A_1 and A2A_2. Since ABC\triangle ABC is an acute triangle, then the point OO lies inside ABC\triangle ABC, hence the point A2A_2 lies on the line ACAC (Fig. 40). Let's prove that the quadrilateral OA0CA2OA_0CA_2 is inscribed. Indeed, since A2OBCA_2O \parallel BC we have
OA2A=BCA=90A0AC=9012A0OC=OA0C. \angle OA_2A = \angle BCA = 90^\circ - \angle A_0AC = 90^\circ - \frac{1}{2} \angle A_0OC = \angle OA_0C.

Now let XX be the second intersection point of circumscribed circle of quadrilateral OA0CA2OA_0CA_2 with the line CHCH. Let's prove that the points A0A_0, BB, A1A_1 and XX lie on the same circle. Indeed,
A1BH=90A=C0CA=AA0C0, \angle A_1BH = 90^\circ - \angle A = \angle C_0CA = \angle AA_0C_0,
that is quadrilateral A0BA1HA_0BA_1H is inscribed. Also A1BH=90A=C0CA=AA0C0\angle A_1BH = 90^\circ - \angle A = \angle C_0CA = \angle AA_0C_0

HXA0=180A0XC=A0OC=2A0AC=2A0BC=A0BH, \angle HXA_0 = 180^\circ - \angle A_0XC = \angle A_0OC = 2\angle A_0AC = 2\angle A_0BC = \angle A_0BH,
since because of the fact that the points HH and A0A_0 are symmetric with respect to the line BCBC.

Now let's prove that the line A1A2A_1A_2 through a point XX. This follows from that fact that
A1XA0=180A1BA0=A0CA2=180A2XA0. \angle A_1XA_0 = 180^\circ - \angle A_1BA_0 = \angle A_0CA_2 = 180^\circ - \angle A_2XA_0.
Now we have
OXH=180OXC=OA2A=C, and also OXT=OCA=90B. \angle OXH = 180^\circ - \angle OXC = \angle OA_2A = \angle C, \text{ and also } \angle OXT = \angle OCA = 90^\circ - \angle B.
So we proved that if XX is an intersection point of CC0CC_0 and A1A2A_1A_2, then OXT=90B\angle OXT = 90^\circ - \angle B, OXH=C\angle OXH = \angle C.

Figure 1
Fig. 40

Now let YY be the intersection point of AA0AA_0 and C1C2C_1C_2. Analogously one can prove that OYT=90B\angle OYT = 90^\circ - \angle B, and OYH=A\angle OYH = \angle A. Consider the points X,H,Y,OX, H, Y, O. Clearly YHX=A\angle YHX = \angle A. Then, since OXH+XHY+HYO=180\angle OXH + \angle XHY + \angle HYO = 180^\circ, the points X,Y,OX, Y, O lie on one line. Hence, we have XHY\triangle XHY with the point OO on the side XYXY. This triangle is similar to ABC\triangle ABC, moreover since TXY=TYX=90B\angle TXY = \angle TYX = 90^\circ - \angle B, then in this similarity the ray XTXT corresponds to the ray COCO, and the ray YTYT to AOAO. Hence, the point TT corresponds to the point OO, so TT is the center of circumscribed circle YHX\triangle YHX. Thus we have THX=90XYH=90A=HCA\angle THX = 90^\circ - \angle XYH = 90^\circ - \angle A = \angle HCA, that is HTACHT \parallel AC.

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