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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=180∘−∠EDA=180∘−∠EDH=180∘−∠ECH=90∘+A\angle RDA = 180^\circ - \angle EDA = 180^\circ - \angle EDH = 180^\circ - \angle ECH = 90^\circ + A, and ∠RPA=∠HPA=180∘−∠HBA=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=∠PRB−∠PRA=∠PEB−∠PDA=∠PEF+∠FEB−∠PDF+∠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 Q′Q' and R′R' denote the intersections of line MQMQ with the circumcircle of △ABC\triangle ABC, chosen so that Q′,M,Q,R′Q', 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 AB2sin⁡C\frac{AB}{2\sin C}, and the circumcircle of △ABH\triangle ABH has radius AB2sin⁡∠AHB=AB2sin⁡(180∘−C)\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=MQ′MQ = 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 MQ⋅MR′=MQ′⋅MR′=MA⋅MB=MD2MQ \cdot MR' = MQ' \cdot MR' = MA \cdot MB = MD^2. In particular, this means that the circumcircle of

△DR′Q\triangle DR'Q is tangent to MDMD at DD, which means ∠MR′D=∠MDQ\angle MR'D = \angle MDQ.
Similarly MQ⋅MR′=ME2MQ \cdot MR' = ME^2, and so ∠MR′E=∠MEQ=∠MDQ=∠MR′D\angle MR'E = \angle MEQ = \angle MDQ = \angle MR'D. Therefore, R′R' 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 R′′R'' on line EDED. Thus, R,R′,R, R', and R′′R'' 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 R′′R'' must be equal. However,
R′′≠RR'' \neq R since MPMP and PHPH already intersect at PP, and R′′≠R′R'' \neq R' since
MPMP and MQMQ already intersect at MM. Thus, R′=RR' = R, and the proof is
complete. □\square

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