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Geometry Difficulty 8.3 Shortlist Prove it Romania

Circles Ω\Omega and ω\omega are tangent at a point PP (ω\omega lies inside Ω\Omega). A chord ABAB of Ω\Omega is tangent to ω\omega at CC; the line PCPC meets again Ω\Omega at QQ. Chords QRQR and QSQS of Ω\Omega are tangent to ω\omega. Let I,XI, X, and YY be the incentres of the triangles APB,ARBAPB, ARB, and ASBASB, respectively. Prove that
PXI+PYI=90. \angle PXI + \angle PYI = 90^{\circ}.

Solution

Notice that a homothety centred at PP mapping ω\omega to Ω\Omega maps CC to QQ, and maps the line ABAB to the tangent to Ω\Omega at QQ. Thus this tangent is parallel to ABAB, and hence QQ is the midpoint of arc ABAB (not containing PP). So the points I,XI, X, and YY lie on the segments PQ,RQPQ, RQ, and SQSQ, respectively.

Recall that for any triangle KLMKLM with the circumcircle Γ\Gamma and incentre JJ, the points K,LK, L, and JJ are equidistant from the midpoint of arc KLKL of Γ\Gamma not containing MM. Applying this to triangles APB,ARBAPB, ARB, and ASBASB we obtain that
QA=QB=QX=QY=QI. QA = QB = QX = QY = QI.
Since QQ is the midpoint of arc ABAB, we get that QPA=QPB=QAB\angle QPA = \angle QPB = \angle QAB. Thus the triangles QACQAC and QPAQPA are similar, and QCQP=QA2=QX2QC \cdot QP = QA^2 = QX^2. Since QXQX is tangent to ω\omega, it follows that XX is their point of tangency; analogously, YY is the point of tangency of QSQS with ω\omega.

Finally, from isosceles triangles QXIQXI and QYIQYI we get QXI=QIX=90IQX/2\angle QXI = \angle QIX = 90^{\circ} - \angle IQX/2 and QYI=QIY=90IQY/2\angle QYI = \angle QIY = 90^{\circ} - \angle IQY/2. Denoting by OO the centre of ω\omega, we obtain QIX+QIY=180XQY/2=180(180XOY)/2=90+XPY\angle QIX + \angle QIY = 180^{\circ} - \angle XQY/2 = 180^{\circ} - (180^{\circ} - \angle XOY)/2 = 90^{\circ} + \angle XPY. Thus,
PXI+PYI=XIYXPY=(90+XPY)XPY=90, \angle PXI + \angle PYI = \angle XIY - \angle XPY = (90^{\circ} + \angle XPY) - \angle XPY = 90^{\circ},
as required.

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