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Geometry Difficulty 8.7 Shortlist Prove it Taiwan

Let ABCABC be a triangle with circumcenter OO. A circle Γ\Gamma is tangent to OBOB and OCOC at BB and CC, respectively. Let DD be a point on Γ\Gamma other than BB such that CB=CDCB = CD. Let EE be the intersection of DODO and Γ\Gamma other than DD, and let FF be the intersection of EAEA and Γ\Gamma other than DD. Let XX be a point on ACAC such that XBBDXB \perp BD. Prove that half of ADF\angle ADF equals BDX\angle BDX or BXD\angle BXD.

Solution

Solution. Since ADF\angle ADF is the angle between Γ\Gamma and (ADE)\odot(ADE), consider the circle (ADE)\odot(ADE) and its second intersection AA' with (ABC)\odot(ABC). Also let DADA' intersects BXBX at XX'. Denote ADF\angle ADF by θ\theta. Now we first show the following two lemmas.

Lemma 1. (A,A;B,C)=tan2(12θ)(A, A'; B, C) = \tan^2(\frac{1}{2}\theta) or cot2(12θ)\cot^2(\frac{1}{2}\theta).

Proof. Note that (ABC)\odot(ABC) is orthogonal to both Γ\Gamma and (ADE)\odot(ADE) as OA2=OC2=ODOEOA^2 = OC^2 = OD \cdot OE. Therefore, if we take the inversion at DD and denote the image of a point PP by PP_*, then AAA_*A_*', BCB_*C_* are diameters of a circle that intersect with angle θ\theta. Thus it is clear that
(A,A;B,C)=(A,A;B,C)=tan2(12θ) or cot2(12θ). (A, A'; B, C) = (A_*, A_*'; B_*, C_*) = \tan^2(\frac{1}{2}\theta) \text{ or } \cot^2(\frac{1}{2}\theta).

Lemma 2. DXDXDX \perp DX'.

Proof. Take the inversion at CC with radius CB=CDCB = CD. This inversion sends (ABC)\odot(ABC) to a line passing through BB and perpendicular to COCO, and thus it is BXXBXX'. This shows that the inversion sends AA to XX and AA' to XX'. Moreover, the inversions sends Γ\Gamma to BDBD, and so EE is sent to the reflection DD' of DD with respect to BB as (E,D;B,C)(E, D; B, C) is harmonic. Since XXDDXX' \perp DD', we have that XXXX' is the perpendicular bisector of DDDD'. Moreover, since A,A,D,EA, A', D, E are concyclic, we have that X,X,D,DX, X', D, D' are also concyclic. As a consequence, DXDXDX \perp DX'.

To show the original statement, note that by perspectivity through CC, we have
tan2(12θ) or cot2(12θ)=(A,A;B,C)=XBBX=cot2BDX \tan^2(\frac{1}{2}\theta) \text{ or } \cot^2(\frac{1}{2}\theta) = (A, A'; B, C) = \frac{XB}{BX'} = \cot^2 \angle BDX
where the first equality follows from the first lemma and the last equality follows from the second lemma. Thus either θ/2=BDX\theta/2 = BDX or θ/2=90BDX=BXD\theta/2 = 90^\circ - \angle BDX = \angle BXD, as desired.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from zh; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.