Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /82 of 101

Geometry Difficulty 7.0 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Estonia

In an acute triangle ABCABC with AB<ACAB < AC, points DD, EE and FF are the feet of the altitudes drawn from vertices AA, BB and CC, respectively. Let the orthocenter of ABCABC be HH and the midpoint of the side BCBC be MM. Point KK on the prolongation of the line segment EMEM beyond MM and point LL on the line segment FMFM satisfy MK=ML=MDMK = ML = MD. Prove that points KK, LL and HH lie on a line.

Solutions — 3

Solution 1

Firstly, we prove that BDLFBDLF is an isosceles trapezium (Fig. 44). As CEB=90=CFB\angle CEB = 90^\circ = \angle CFB, points BB, CC, EE and FF lie on a circle with diameter BCBC. Hence MM is the center of this circle. Consequently, MB=MFMB = MF, implying

Figure 1
Fig. 44

DB=MBMD=MFML=LFDB = MB - MD = MF - ML = LF. Hence DLBFDL \parallel BF and the desired claim follows.

Consequently, points BB, DD, LL and FF also lie on a circle (Fig. 45). Since BDH=90=HFB\angle BDH = 90^\circ = \angle HFB, we know that BHBH is a diameter of this circle. Thus HH lies on this circle, too. Now
MLK=180KML2=LME2=FME2=FBE=FBH=FLH. \begin{aligned} \angle MLK &= \frac{\angle 180^\circ - \angle KML}{2} = \frac{\angle LME}{2} = \frac{\angle FME}{2} \\ &= \angle FBE = \angle FBH = \angle FLH. \end{aligned}

But MLK=FLH\angle MLK = \angle FLH implies that points KK, LL, and HH lie on a line.

Solution 2

As in Solution 1, we prove that BDLFBDLF is an isosceles trapezium whose circumcircle passes through HH. By interchanging the roles of BB and CC, the roles of EE and FF, and the roles of KK and LL, we analogously obtain that CKDECKDE is an isosceles trapezium whose circumcircle passes through HH (Fig. 46). Now LHB=LFB=FBD=ABC\angle LHB = \angle LFB = \angle FBD = \angle ABC, but, on the other hand,
KHB=180EHK=KCE=CED. \angle KHB = 180^\circ - \angle EHK = \angle KCE = \angle CED.
As BDA=90=BEA\angle BDA = 90^\circ = \angle BEA, the quadrilateral ABDEABDE is cyclic, implying that CED=ABC\angle CED = \angle ABC. Consequently, LHB=KHB\angle LHB = \angle KHB, implying that points KK, LL and HH lie on a line.

Solution 3

As in Solution 1, we prove that points BB, DD, LL, FF and HH lie on a circle with diameter BHBH. By interchanging the roles of BB and CC, the roles of EE and FF, and the roles of KK and LL, we analogously obtain that points CC, DD, KK, EE and HH lie on a circle with diameter CHCH. As HLBLHL \perp BL and HKCKHK \perp CK by Thales' theorem (Fig. 47), it suffices to prove that BLCKBL \parallel CK. To this end, note that
LBM=LBD=LFD=MFD,KCM=KCD=KED=MED. \begin{aligned} \angle LBM &= \angle LBD = \angle LFD = \angle MFD, \\ \angle KCM &= \angle KCD = \angle KED = \angle MED. \end{aligned}

Figure 2
Fig. 46
Figure 3
Fig. 47

It is known that the midpoints of sides of a triangle and the feet of altitudes of the triangle lie on a circle (so-called nine-point circle). Hence MM, DD, EE and FF are concyclic, implying that MFD=MED\angle MFD = \angle MED. Consequently, LBM=KCM\angle LBM = \angle KCM, proving the desired result.

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 and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.