Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /6 of 27

Geometry Difficulty 6.4 National olympiad Prove it North Macedonia

Let ABC\triangle ABC be a triangle. The external and internal angle bisectors of CAB\angle CAB intersect side BCBC at DD and EE, respectively. Let FF be a point on the segment BCBC. The circumcircle of triangle ADF\triangle ADF intersects ABAB and ACAC at II and JJ, respectively. Let NN be the mid-point of IJIJ and HH the foot of EE on DNDN. Prove that EE is the incenter of triangle AHF\triangle AHF.

Solution

Denote by ω\omega the circumcircle of AHF\triangle AHF.
The key idea in the problem is to introduce a new point XX which we define as the second intersection of DNDN and ω\omega. We now note that the JAD=CAD=90±α2\angle JAD = \angle CAD = 90^\circ \pm \frac{\alpha}{2} where α=CAB\alpha = \angle CAB. As ADAD is an external bisector of CAB\angle CAB.
The ±\pm signs depend on the picture and student shouldn't be deduced any points for not noticing this.
Hence we have either JAD=BAD\angle JAD = \angle BAD or JAD+IAD=180\angle JAD + \angle IAD = 180^\circ so in both cases DI=DJDI = DJ.
Now as NN is midpoint of IJIJ this means that DNDN is bisector of IJIJ and hence passes through the centre of the. This shows that DXDX is a diameter of ω\omega and EHIJEH \parallel IJ.
We also notice that EAD=90\angle EAD = 90^\circ as angle between bisectors and XAD=90\angle XAD = 90^\circ as DXDX is a diameter. Hence X,A,EX, A, E are collinear.
Now this gives us DHE=XHE=90\angle DHE = \angle XHE = 90^\circ and XFE=DFE=90\angle XFE = \angle DFE = 90^\circ as DXDX is a diameter of ω\omega and finally again EAD=90\angle EAD = 90^\circ. All this gives us that quadrilaterals XFEHXFEH and ADEHADEH are cyclic.
Final step is to use some angle chasing to get AHE=ADH=AXF=EXF=EHF\angle AHE = \angle ADH = \angle AXF = \angle EXF = \angle EHF where first, second and fourth equalities are due to cyclicity of ADEHADEH, ADXFADXF and XFEHXFEH respectively. Also DFH=EFH=EXH=AFD=AFE\angle DFH = \angle EFH = \angle EXH = \angle AFD = \angle AFE where the second and fourth equalities are due to cyclicity of XFEHXFEH and ADXFADXF. This shows EE is the incenter of AFH\triangle AFH as desired.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.