Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /6 of 6

, 2018

Geometry Difficulty 8.5 Shortlist Prove it Saudi Arabia

Let ABCABC be an acute, non-isosceles triangle with II as its incenter. Denote D,ED, E as the points of tangency of (I)(I) on AB,ACAB, AC, respectively. The median segments with respect to vertex AA of triangles ABEABE and ACDACD meet (I)(I) at P,QP, Q, respectively. Take points M,NM, N on the line DEDE such that AMBEAM \perp BE and ANCDAN \perp CD respectively.

1. Prove that AA lies on the radical axis of (MIP)(MIP) and (NIQ)(NIQ).
2. Suppose that the orthocenter HH of triangle ABCABC lies on (I)(I). Prove that there exists a line which is tangent to three circles of center A,B,CA, B, C and all pass through HH.

Solution

1) Since AMAM passes through the midpoint of the segment BEBE and APBEAP \parallel BE, we can see that
(AP,AM,AB,AC)=1 or (MP,MA,MD,ME)=1. (AP, AM, AB, AC) = -1 \text{ or } (MP, MA, MD, ME) = -1.
Suppose that AMAM cuts (I)(I) at the second point TT then MDTEMDTE is a harmonic quadrilateral, then (Mx,MT,MD,ME)=1(Mx, MT, MD, ME) = -1 with MxMx as the tangent line of (I)(I).
From these results, we get MxMPMx \equiv MP which implies that PMPM is tangent to (I)(I) or IMP=90\angle IMP = 90^\circ. Similarly, we also have INP=90\angle INP = 90^\circ. Hence, if we denote KK as the midpoint of DEDE then IKDEIK \perp DE and K(MIP),(NIQ)K \in (MIP), (NIQ). Since AIKA \in IK as the radical axis of these two circles, the result follows.

2) Denote A1,B1,C1A_1, B_1, C_1 as the projections from A,B,CA, B, C to the opposite side, respectively then
HAHA1=HBHB1=HCHC1=12PH/(ABC). \overline{HA} \cdot \overline{HA_1} = \overline{HB} \cdot \overline{HB_1} = \overline{HC} \cdot \overline{HC_1} = \frac{1}{2} \mathscr{P}_{H/(ABC)}.
Consider the inversion of center HH and the power equals to the value above, then we have
AA1,BB1,CC1,(HB1C1)BC,(HC1A1)CA,(HA1B1)AB \begin{aligned} & A \leftrightarrow A_1, \quad B \leftrightarrow B_1, \quad C \leftrightarrow C_1, \\ & (HB_1C_1) \leftrightarrow BC, \quad (HC_1A_1) \leftrightarrow CA, \quad (HA_1B_1) \leftrightarrow AB \end{aligned}
The image of (I)(I) should be some line dd since H(I)H \in (I). Because BC,CA,ABBC, CA, AB are tangent to (I)(I) then dd is also tangent to (HB1C1),(HC1A1),(HA1B1)(HB_1C_1), (HC_1A_1), (HA_1B_1).
Consider the homothety of center HH, ratio 22 which maps ddd \rightarrow d' and the circle (HB1C1)(HB_1C_1) to the circle of center HH and radius HAHA (since HAHA is the diameter of (HB1C1)(HB_1C_1)). By the property of homothety, we have dd' is also tangent to (A,AH)(A, AH). Similarly to these circles (B,BH),(C,CH)(B, BH), (C, CH) so the line dd' satisfies the given condition. \square

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.