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Geometry Difficulty 8.8 Shortlist Prove it Romania

Let ABCABC be a triangle, let II be its incenter, let Ω\Omega be its circumcircle, and let ω\omega be the circle tangent to the sides ABAB and ACAC, and internally tangent to Ω\Omega. Let D,ED, E and TT be the points of contact of ω\omega and AB,ACAB, AC and Ω\Omega, respectively, let the line ITIT cross ω\omega again at PP, and let the lines PDPD and PEPE cross the line BCBC at MM and NN respectively. Prove that the points D,E,M,ND, E, M, N lie on a circle. What is the center of this circle?
Severius Moldovan

Solution

Figure 1

The points D,E,M,ND, E, M, N are concyclic if and only if DEP=BMD\angle DEP = \angle BMD. Read from ω\omega to infer that DEP=DTP=ADP\angle DEP = \angle DTP = \angle ADP.
We now show that DTP=ATE\angle DTP = \angle ATE. To this end, consider the homothety from TT mapping ω\omega onto Ω\Omega. This homothety maps DD to the midpoint CC' of the arc ABAB not containing CC, and EE to the midpoint BB' of the arc ACAC not containing BB. (A tangent to ω\omega is mapped onto a parallel tangent to Ω\Omega.)
Apply Pascal's theorem to the hexagram ABBTCCABB'TC'C to infer that D,I,ED, I, E are collinear, so II is the midpoint of the segment DEDE (Veldkamp, 1976-1977).
Since ADAD and AEAE are the tangents from AA to ω\omega, the line ATAT is the TT-symmedian in the triangle DETDET, so DTP=DTI=ATE\angle DTP = \angle DTI = \angle ATE.
Next, ATE=ATB=ABB\angle ATE = \angle ATB' = \angle ABB' (read from Ω\Omega), so ADP=DTP=ATE=ABB=ABI\angle ADP = \angle DTP = \angle ATE = \angle ABB' = \angle ABI, showing that the line through D,M,PD, M, P is parallel to the internal bisectrix BIBI of the angle ABCABC.
Consequently, BMD=CBI=ABI=ADP=DEP\angle BMD = \angle CBI = \angle ABI = \angle ADP = \angle DEP, so the points D,E,M,ND, E, M, N lie on a circle γ\gamma.
Finally, we show that γ\gamma is centered at the AA-excenter of the triangle ABCABC. The center of γ\gamma is the point where the perpendicular bisectrix of the segment DEDE crosses the perpendicular bisectrix of the segment DMDM. The former is the internal AA-bisectrix in the triangle ABCABC. The latter is the external BB-bisectrix in the triangle ABCABC, since BDM=ADP=BMD\angle BDM = \angle ADP = \angle BMD, so the triangle BDMBDM is isosceles with apex at BB. The two angle bisectors cross at the AA-excenter of the triangle ABCABC and the conclusion follows.

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