Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /25 of 86

Geometry Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Estonia

The lines tangent to the circumcircle of triangle ABCABC at points BB and CC intersect at point DD. The circumcircle of triangle BCDBCD intersects the lines ABAB and ACAC the second time at points KK and LL, respectively. Prove that the line ADAD bisects the line segment KLKL.

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

We prove that AKDLAKDL is a parallelogram; this implies the desired claim since ADAD and KLKL are diagonals of this quadrilateral. We prove at first that KDALKD \parallel AL.

If KK lies between AA and BB (Fig. 19) then by inscribed angles BAC=BCD\angle BAC = \angle BCD and BCD=BKD\angle BCD = \angle BKD. Consequently, BAL=BAC=BKD\angle BAL = \angle BAC = \angle BKD, implying KDALKD \parallel AL.

If BB lies between AA and KK (Fig. 20) then by inscribed angles BAC=BCD\angle BAC = \angle BCD and BCD=180BKD\angle BCD = 180^\circ - \angle BKD. Consequently, BAL+BKD=BAC+BKD=180\angle BAL + \angle BKD = \angle BAC + \angle BKD = 180^\circ, implying KDALKD \parallel AL.

If AA lies between KK and BB (Fig. 21) then by inscribed angles BAC=180BCD\angle BAC = 180^\circ - \angle BCD and BCD=BKD\angle BCD = \angle BKD. Consequently, BAL=180BAC=BKD\angle BAL = 180^\circ - \angle BAC = \angle BKD, implying KDALKD \parallel AL again.

Analogously, we can show that LDAKLD \parallel AK. Altogether, this establishes that AKDLAKDL is a parallelogram.

Figure 1
Fig. 19
Figure 2
Fig. 20
Figure 3
Fig. 21

Solution 2

By inscribed angles, ABC=ALK\angle ABC = \angle ALK, implying that the triangles ABCABC and ALKALK are similar. Let the lines ADAD and KLKL intersect at point NN.

Figure 1
Fig. 19

Let MM be the midpoint of the side BCBC. It is known that the symmedian line drawn through a vertex of a triangle and the lines tangent to the circumcircle of the triangle at the other two vertices meet in one point; hence NN is the point of intersection of the symmedian line drawn through vertex AA of the triangle ABCABC with line KLKL. By the definition of symmedian, BAM=CAN=LAN\angle BAM = \angle CAN = \angle LAN, whence MM and NN are corresponding points in similar triangles ABCABC and ALKALK. Thus NN bisects the line segment KLKL.

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.