Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 4.8 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:

Let ABCABC be a triangle. The incircle, centered at II, touches side BCBC at DD. Let EE be the reflection of DD through II, and let FF be the reflection of DD through the midpoint of BCBC. Prove that AA, EE, and FF are collinear.

Solution

Solution:

Let the tangent line to the incircle at EE (which is of course parallel to BCBC) meet ABAB and ACAC at XX and YY, respectively.

Figure 1

Note that
IXE=BXE2=180DBX2=90DBI=BID. \angle IXE = \frac{\angle BXE}{2} = \frac{180^\circ - \angle DBX}{2} = 90^\circ - \angle DBI = BID.
Therefore the right triangles IXEIXE and BIDBID are similar. We get
XEEI=IDBD \frac{XE}{EI} = \frac{ID}{BD}
that is, XEBD=r2XE \cdot BD = r^2 where rr is the inradius. Likewise, EYDC=r2EY \cdot DC = r^2. So
XEEY=DCBD=BFFC \frac{XE}{EY} = \frac{DC}{BD} = \frac{BF}{FC}
Now XE/BF=XY/BC=AX/ABXE / BF = XY / BC = AX / AB, so AXEABF\triangle AXE \sim \triangle ABF and AA, EE, and FF are collinear.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.