Let be a convex quadrilateral with . Point is the foot of the perpendicular from to . The points and are chosen on the sides and , respectively, in such a way that lies inside triangle and
Prove that the circumcircle of triangle is tangent to the line .
Solution
Let the line passing through and perpendicular to the line intersect the line at (see Figure 1). Then
which implies that the points , , , and lie on a common circle. Moreover, since is a diameter of this circle, we infer that the circumcentre of triangle lies on the line . Similarly, we prove that the circumcentre of triangle lies on the line .

Figure 1
In order to prove that the circumcircle of triangle is tangent to , it suffices to show that the perpendicular bisectors of and intersect on the line . However, these two perpendicular bisectors coincide with the angle bisectors of angles and . Therefore, in order to complete the solution, it is enough (by the bisector theorem) to show that
We present two proofs of this equality.
First proof. Let the lines and intersect at (see Figure 2). Since and , the points and are symmetric to each other with respect to the line . Therefore is the midpoint of . Denote by the circumcentre of quadrilateral . Then is the midpoint of . Therefore we have and hence . This together with the equality implies that is the perpendicular bisector of and therefore .
Since , the points , , , and lie on a common circle with diameter . Similarly, the points , , , and lie on a circle with diameter . Thus, using the sine law, we obtain
which finishes the proof of (1).

Figure 2
Second proof. If the points , , and are collinear, then and , so the equality (1) follows. Assume therefore that the points , , and do not lie in a line and consider the circle passing through them (see Figure 3). Since the quadrilateral is cyclic,
Let be the intersection point of the circle and the angle bisector of . Then is also the angle bisector of . Since and are symmetric to each other with respect to the line and , it follows that both and the centre of lie on the line . This means that the circle is an Apollonius circle of the points and . This immediately yields (1).

Figure 3