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Geometry Difficulty 7.1 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Ireland

Let ABCABC be a triangle. Let ADAD be the angle bisector of the angle BAC\angle BAC and let BEBE be the angle bisector of the angle ABC\angle ABC, with DD interior to the side BCBC and EE to the side ACAC. Let MM be a point interior to the side BCBC such that CM=AE|CM| = |AE|, and let NN be a point interior to the side ACAC such that CN=BD|CN| = |BD|. Show that the points D,E,MD, E, M and NN are all on a circle if and only if AB=AC|AB| = |AC|.

Solution

Let aa, bb and cc be the lengths of the sides of the triangle ABCABC. Using that ADAD is an angle bisector, that the two angles ADB\angle ADB and CDA\angle CDA are complementary (hence have equal sines) and the sine rule for the triangles ABDABD and ADCADC one obtains
BDDC=cband similarlyAEEC=ca. \frac{|BD|}{|DC|} = \frac{c}{b} \quad \text{and similarly} \quad \frac{|AE|}{|EC|} = \frac{c}{a}.
Figure 1

The points EE, DD, MM and NN are all on a circle if and only if opposite angles of the quadrilateral EDMNEDMN add up to 180180^\circ. This is equivalent to CMN=CED\angle CMN = \angle CED and CNM=CDE\angle CNM = \angle CDE which is equivalent to the triangles CMNCMN and CEDCED being similar. This, however, is equivalent to
CECM=CDCN. \frac{|CE|}{|CM|} = \frac{|CD|}{|CN|}.
Using a=cCE/AEa = c \cdot |CE|/|AE| and b=cCD/BDb = c \cdot |CD|/|BD|, which was shown above, and AE=CM|AE| = |CM|, BD=CN|BD| = |CN|, it is now straightforward to see that EE, DD, MM, NN are concyclic if and only if a=ba = b.

Figure 1

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.