Olympiad Maths Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 7.5 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Czech Republic

Let ABCABC be an acute triangle, which is not equilateral. Denote by OO and HH its circumcenter and orthocenter, respectively. The circle kk passes through BB and touches the line ACAC at AA. The circle ll with center on the ray BHBH touches the line ABAB at AA. The circles kk and ll meet in XX (XAX \neq A). Show that HXO=180BAC\angle HXO = 180^\circ - \angle BAC.

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

Let EE be the intersection point of the circle ll and the line ACAC (EAE \neq A). Since kk lies in the half-plane ACBACB and ll lies in the half-plane ABCABC, the point XX lies inside of the angle BACBAC (Fig. 4). Using the well known fact about the angle between a tangent and a chord of a given circle we get XAE=XBA\angle XAE = \angle XBA and XAB=XEA\angle XAB = \angle XEA. Therefore the triangles ABXABX and EAXEAX are similar.

Denote by γ\gamma the measure of ACB\angle ACB. We have AOB=2γ\angle AOB = 2\gamma, as AOB\angle AOB is the central angle corresponding to the inscribed angle of measure γ\gamma in the circumcircle of the triangle ABCABC.

The line BHBH passes through the centre of ll and is perpendicular to its chord AEAE, so it is in fact the axis of symmetry of the chord AEAE. Therefore AH=HEAH = HE, and

from the isosceles triangle EAHEAH with AHBCAH \perp BC, we obtain EAH=90γ\angle EAH = 90^\circ - \gamma, hence AHE=2γ\angle AHE = 2\gamma.

Figure 1

Fig. 4

The triangles ABOABO and EAHEAH are both isosceles, and have the vertex angle of the same measure, so they are similar. We have two pairs of similar triangles with the same ratio of similitude AB:EAAB : EA. Since OO and XX lie on the same side of ABAB, and HH and XX lie on the same side of EAEA, the quadrilaterals1^1 ABXOABXO and EAXHEAXH are similar.

Consider the rotation with centre XX which maps the ray XBXB onto the ray XAXA. With respect to the derived similarity, the ray XOXO is mapped onto the ray XHXH under this rotation. Therefore we have

HXO=AXB=180BAC. \angle HXO = \angle AXB = 180^\circ - \angle BAC.

The last identity follows from the fact that AXB\angle AXB is the inscribed angle corresponding to the chord ABAB of kk, while CAB\angle CAB is the angle between this chord and its tangent, and both XX and CC lie in the same half-plane determined by this chord.

1^1 These quadrilaterals may be degenerate – three of the four vertices may be collinear.

*Remark.* Instead of rotation, one may consider the spiral similarity which maps ABXOABXO onto EAXHEAXH. Since it maps BABA onto ACAC, it is clear that the rotating part of this map rotates all the lines by angle 180BAC180^\circ - \angle BAC.

Solution 2

(*Outline.*) It is possible to solve the problem using coordinates. Let AA be the origin and BB lies on the xx-axis. Denote by bb the first coordinate of BB and let (c,v)(c, v) be the coordinates of CC. Routine calculations give

A=(0,0),B=(b,0),C=(c,v),H=(c,c(bc)v),O=(12b,c2+v2bc2v),Sk=(12b,bc2v),Sl=(0,bcv),X=(6bc29c2+v2,2bcv9c2+v2),Y=(12b,bc2v). A = (0,0), \quad B = (b,0), \quad C = (c,v), \quad H = \left(c, \frac{c(b-c)}{v}\right), \quad O = \left(\frac{1}{2}b, \frac{c^2+v^2-bc}{2v}\right), \\ S_k = \left(\frac{1}{2}b, -\frac{bc}{2v}\right), \quad S_l = \left(0, \frac{bc}{v}\right), \quad X = \left(\frac{6bc^2}{9c^2+v^2}, \frac{2bcv}{9c^2+v^2}\right), \quad Y = \left(\frac{1}{2}b, \frac{bc}{2v}\right).

Here, SkS_k and SlS_l are the centres of kk and ll, respectively, and YY is the intersection point of the line BHBH and the line OSkOS_k (these two lines are perpendicular to ACAC and ABAB, respectively, hence they form the angle of the same measure as BAC\angle BAC).

Instead of expressing the measure of HXO\angle HXO, we will show that X,O,HX, O, H, and YY are concyclic, that is, the determinant

(6bc2)2+(2bcv)2(9c2+v2)26bc29c2+v22bcv9c2+v21b24+(c2+v2bc)24v2b2c2+v2bc2v1c2+c2(bc)2v2cc(bc)v1b24+b2c24v2b2bc2v1 \left| \begin{array}{cccc} \frac{(6bc^2)^2 + (2bcv)^2}{(9c^2 + v^2)^2} & \frac{6bc^2}{9c^2 + v^2} & \frac{2bcv}{9c^2 + v^2} & 1 \\ \frac{b^2}{4} + \frac{(c^2 + v^2 - bc)^2}{4v^2} & \frac{b}{2} & \frac{c^2 + v^2 - bc}{2v} & 1 \\ c^2 + \frac{c^2(b-c)^2}{v^2} & c & \frac{c(b-c)}{v} & 1 \\ \frac{b^2}{4} + \frac{b^2c^2}{4v^2} & \frac{b}{2} & \frac{bc}{2v} & 1 \end{array} \right|

evaluates to zero. In fact, this is an easy exercise, provided we know basic tricks from linear algebra (adding a scalar multiple of one row to another row does not change the value of the determinant; the same is valid for columns; when checking only zero value, we can multiply any row/column by a nonzero scalar).

It remains to show that among the two possible values, BAC\angle BAC and 180BAC180^\circ - \angle BAC, of an inscribed angle corresponding to the chord HOHO of the circumcircle of the triangle HOYHOY, the latter always apply for HXO\angle HXO. Also, the case Y=OY = O or Y=HY = H should be handled separately. One may use some kind of continuity arguments to show that we cannot "jump" from one value to another.

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