Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.8 National Olympiad Prove it Canada

Let ABC\triangle ABC be an acute-angled triangle with altitudes ADAD and BEBE meeting at HH. Let MM be the midpoint of segment ABAB, and suppose that the circumcircles of DEM\triangle DEM and ABH\triangle ABH meet at points PP and QQ with PP on the same side of CHCH as AA. Prove that the lines EDED, PHPH, and MQMQ all pass through a single point on the circumcircle of ABC\triangle ABC.

Solution

Let RR denote the intersection of lines EDED and PHPH. Since quadrilaterals ECDHECDH and APHBAPHB are cyclic, we have RDA=180EDA=180EDH=180ECH=90+A\angle RDA = 180^\circ - \angle EDA = 180^\circ - \angle EDH = 180^\circ - \angle ECH = 90^\circ + A, and RPA=HPA=180HBA=90+A\angle RPA = \angle HPA = 180^\circ - \angle HBA = 90^\circ + A. Therefore, APDRAPDR is cyclic. This in turn implies that PBE=PBH=PAH=PAD=PRD=PRE\angle PBE = \angle PBH = \angle PAH = \angle PAD = \angle PRD = \angle PRE, and so PBREPBRE is also cyclic.
Let FF denote the base of the altitude from CC to ABAB. Then D,E,FD, E, F, and MM all lie on the 9-point circle of ABC\triangle ABC, and so are cyclic. We also know APDR,PBRE,BCEFAPDR, PBRE, BCEF, and ACDFACDF are cyclic, which implies ARB=PRBPRA=PEBPDA=PEF+FEBPDF+ADF=FEB+ADF=FCB+ACF=C\angle ARB = \angle PRB - \angle PRA = \angle PEB - \angle PDA = \angle PEF + \angle FEB - \angle PDF + \angle ADF = \angle FEB + \angle ADF = \angle FCB + \angle ACF = C. Therefore, RR lies on the circumcircle of ABC\triangle ABC.
Now let QQ' and RR' denote the intersections of line MQMQ with the circumcircle of ABC\triangle ABC, chosen so that Q,M,Q,RQ', M, Q, R' lie on the line in that order. We will show that R=RR' = R, which will complete the proof. However, first note that the circumcircle of ABC\triangle ABC has radius AB2sinC\frac{AB}{2\sin C}, and the circumcircle of ABH\triangle ABH has radius AB2sinAHB=AB2sin(180C)\frac{AB}{2\sin\angle AHB} = \frac{AB}{2\sin(180^\circ - C)}. Thus the two circles have equal radius, and so they must be symmetrical about the point MM. In particular, MQ=MQMQ = MQ'.
Since AEB=ADB=90\angle AEB = \angle ADB = 90^\circ, we furthermore know that MM is the circumcenter of both AEB\triangle AEB and ADB\triangle ADB. Thus, MA=ME=MD=MBMA = ME = MD = MB. By Power of a Point, we then have MQMR=MQMR=MAMB=MD2MQ \cdot MR' = MQ' \cdot MR' = MA \cdot MB = MD^2. In particular, this means that the circumcircle of

DRQ\triangle DR'Q is tangent to MDMD at DD, which means MRD=MDQ\angle MR'D = \angle MDQ.
Similarly MQMR=ME2MQ \cdot MR' = ME^2, and so MRE=MEQ=MDQ=MRD\angle MR'E = \angle MEQ = \angle MDQ = \angle MR'D. Therefore, RR' also lies on the line EDED.
Finally, the same argument shows that MPMP also intersects the circum-
circle of ABC\triangle ABC at a point RR'' on line EDED. Thus, R,R,R, R', and RR'' are
all chosen from the intersection of the circumcircle of ABC\triangle ABC and the
line EDED. In particular, two of R,R,R, R', and RR'' must be equal. However,
RRR'' \neq R since MPMP and PHPH already intersect at PP, and RRR'' \neq R' since
MPMP and MQMQ already intersect at MM. Thus, R=RR' = R, and the proof is
complete. \square

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