Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / Hong Kong Team Selection Test 1 /4 of 4

Hong Kong Team Selection Test 1

Geometry Difficulty 8.3 Shortlist Prove it Hong Kong

Let Ω\Omega be the incircle of △ABC\triangle ABC. There are two smaller circles ω1\omega_1 and ω2\omega_2 inside △ABC\triangle ABC. The circle ω1\omega_1 is tangent to Ω\Omega at PP, tangent to BCBC at DD, and also tangent to ABAB. The circle ω2\omega_2 is tangent to Ω\Omega at QQ, tangent to BCBC at EE, and also tangent to ACAC. Prove that D,E,Q,PD, E, Q, P are concyclic.

Solution

Let SS be the point on Ω\Omega different from the contact point of Ω\Omega and BCBC such that its tangent to Ω\Omega is parallel to BCBC. Then the tangent at DD to ω1\omega_1 is parallel to the tangent at SS to Ω\Omega. By considering the homothety with centre PP mapping ω1\omega_1 to Ω\Omega, we see that DD, PP, SS are collinear. Similarly, EE, QQ, SS are collinear. Let XX be a point on the tangent at SS to Ω\Omega as shown. Then we have
∠SQP=∠PSX=∠EDP. \angle SQP = \angle PSX = \angle EDP.
This implies DD, EE, QQ, PP are concyclic.

Figure 1

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.