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Ukrainian National Mathematical Olympiad, Third Round, First Tour

Geometry Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Ukraine

Consider the circumscribed circle of an obtuse triangle ABCABC with an obtuse angle BB. Tangents to this circle at points AA and BB meet at point PP, and the perpendicular to the line BCBC at point BB intersects ACAC at point KK. Prove, that PA=PKPA = PK.

(Danylo Khilko)

Solution

First note, that as ∠ABC>90∘\angle ABC > 90^\circ, point KK lies on ACAC (fig. 1). Also, it's clear that PA=PBPA = PB. We will show that KK lies on the circle ω\omega with a center PP and radius PAPA. It's enough to prove, that ∠APB=2(180∘−∠AKB)\angle APB = 2(180^\circ - \angle AKB). Indeed, take on the larger arc of circle ω\omega any point XX. Then ∠AXB=12∠APB\angle AXB = \frac{1}{2}\angle APB. If this condition holds, then ∠AKB+∠AXB=180∘\angle AKB + \angle AXB = 180^\circ, so points A,K,BA, K, B and XX lie on a circle ω\omega. As PP is the center of this circle, PK=PAPK = PA.

So, let's prove that ∠APB=2(180∘−∠AKB)\angle APB = 2(180^\circ - \angle AKB). As PA=PBPA = PB, and also using the theorem about the angle between the chord and a tangent, we get the following: ∠APB=180∘−2∠ABP=180∘−2∠ACB=180∘−2(90∘−∠CKB)=2∠CKB=2(180∘−∠AKB)\angle APB = 180^\circ - 2\angle ABP = 180^\circ - 2\angle ACB = 180^\circ - 2(90^\circ - \angle CKB) = 2\angle CKB = 2(180^\circ - \angle AKB).

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