Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /13 of 48

Geometry Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Greece

Let the triangle ABCABC has barycenter GG and circumcenter OO. The perpendicular bisectors of GAGA, GBGB and GCGC intersect at the points A1A_1, B1B_1, C1C_1. Prove that OO is the barycentre of the triangle A1B1C1A_1B_1C_1.

Solution

Let DD, EE, FF be the middles of the sides BCBC, ACAC, ABAB, respectively.
Figure 1
Let, also B1C1B_1C_1, A1C1A_1C_1, A1B1A_1B_1 be the perpendicular bisectors of the line segments GAGA, GBGB and GCGC, respectively. Then the points A1A_1, B1B_1 and C1C_1 are the circumcenters of the triangles GBCGBC, GACGAC and GABGAB, respectively. Hence A1DA_1D, B1EB_1E and C1FC_1F are the perpendicular bisectors of the sides BCBC, ACAC and ABAB, respectively, and therefore they will pass through the circumcenter OO of the triangle ABCABC.

Next, we will show that A1DA_1D, B1EB_1E and C1FC_1F are the medians of the triangle A1B1C1A_1B_1C_1. Let the extension of A1DA_1D, meets B1C1B_1C_1 at NN. We will prove that NN is the middle of the line segment B1C1B_1C_1.

From the inscribe quadrilateral AMEB1AMEB_1 (M^=E^=90\hat{M} = \hat{E} = 90^\circ), we have MA^E=MB^1E=ω^M\hat{A}E = M\hat{B}_1E = \hat{\omega}. Also, from the inscribe quadrilateral DOECDOEC (D^=E^=90\hat{D} = \hat{E} = 90^\circ), we get EC^D=EO^N=ϕ^E\hat{C}D = E\hat{O}N = \hat{\phi}. Therefore the triangles ADCADC and B1NOB_1NO are similar, and so
NB1NO=ADCD.(1) \frac{NB_1}{NO} = \frac{AD}{CD}. \qquad (1)
From the inscribe quadrilateral AMFC1AMFC_1 (M^=F^=90\hat{M} = \hat{F} = 90^\circ), we have MA^F=MC^1F=x^M\hat{A}F = M\hat{C}_1F = \hat{x} and similarly from DOFBDOFB (D^=F^=90\hat{D} = \hat{F} = 90^\circ), we obtain that FB^D=FO^N=y^F\hat{B}D = F\hat{O}N = \hat{y}. From the above equalities the triangles ADBADB and C1NOC_1NO are similar and therefore:
NC1NO=ADBD.(2) \frac{NC_1}{NO} = \frac{AD}{BD}. \qquad (2)
From (1) and (2) we get NB1=NC1NB_1 = NC_1. In a similar way we prove that B1EB_1E, C1FC_1F are the other two medians of the triangle A1B1C1A_1B_1C_1.

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.