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Taiwan IMO Selection Camp

Geometry Difficulty 4.9 AIME Prove it Taiwan

△ABC\triangle ABC is an acute triangle. Through a point LL on BCBC, draw a circle ω\omega that is tangent to ABAB at B′B' and tangent to ACAC at C′C'. Furthermore, suppose that the circumcenter OO of △ABC\triangle ABC lies on the shorter arc B′C′B'C' of ω\omega. Prove that the circumcircle of △ABC\triangle ABC intersects ω\omega at two points.

Solution

Clearly B′B' is the foot of the perpendicular from LL to ABAB, so it lies within segment ABAB. Similarly, C′C' lies within segment ACAC. Therefore OO must lie inside △AB′C′\triangle AB'C', and hence ∠COB<∠C′OB′\angle COB < \angle C'OB'.

Now let α=∠CAB\alpha = \angle CAB. It is easy to see that ∠COB=2∠CAB=2α\angle COB = 2\angle CAB = 2\alpha and 2∠C′OB′=360∘−∠C′LB′2\angle C'OB' = 360^\circ - \angle C'LB'. Also, ∠C′LB′=180∘−∠C′AB′=180∘−α\angle C'LB' = 180^\circ - \angle C'AB' = 180^\circ - \alpha. Combining the above, we get
2α=∠COB<∠C′OB′=360∘−∠C′LB′2=360∘−(180∘−α)2=90∘+α2, 2\alpha = \angle COB < \angle C'OB' = \frac{360^\circ - \angle C'LB'}{2} = \frac{360^\circ - (180^\circ - \alpha)}{2} = 90^\circ + \frac{\alpha}{2},
so α<60∘\alpha < 60^\circ.

Finally, let O′O' be the reflection of OO across BCBC. Then in the quadrilateral ABO′CABO'C, we have
∠CO′B+∠CAB=∠COB+∠CAB=2α+α<180∘, \angle CO'B + \angle CAB = \angle COB + \angle CAB = 2\alpha + \alpha < 180^\circ,
so O′O' must lie outside the circumcircle of △ABC\triangle ABC. Therefore, the points OO and O′O' lie respectively inside and outside the circumcircle of △ABC\triangle ABC, so the circle ω\omega must intersect the circumcircle of △ABC\triangle ABC at two points.

Figure 1

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from zh; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.