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Geometry Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Silk Road Mathematics Competition

The incircle ω\omega of the triangle ABCABC touches the side BCBC at point KK. Let's draw a circle passing through BB, CC and touching ω\omega at SS. Prove that the line SKSK passes through the center of the excircle touching the side BCBC of the triangle ABCABC.

Solution

The lengths of the sides of ABCABC denote by a,b,ca, b, c. Let II be the center of the incircle, rr its radius, MM the midpoint of BCBC. Denote by rar_a the radius of the excircle touching BCBC. Let LL be the point of tangency of excircle with BCBC. ω0\omega_0 be the circle with center OO, passing through BB and CC, touching ω\omega. W.l.o.g. assume that bcb \ge c.

Firstly, SKSK is a bisector of the angle CSBCSB, since the homothety with center SS, which transforms the incircle to ω0\omega_0, transforms BCBC to some line touching ω0\omega_0 at EE the midpoint of BCBC.

It is well-known fact that KK and LL are symmetric with respect to MM. So, if we prove that ME=IaL/2ME = I_aL/2 then we can immediately conclude that K,E,IaK, E, I_a are collinear.

Let OTIKOT \perp IK, OM=xOM = |x|, where x0x \ge 0, if OO lies below BCBC, and x<0x < 0 otherwise. Let RR be the radius of ω0\omega_0. Then ME=RxME = R - x. Consider the right triangle OTIOTI, OI=RrOI = R - r, OT=(bc)/2OT = (b - c)/2, IT=rxIT = r - x. By Pythagorean theorem

(1)(Rr)2=(rx)2+(bc)2/4 (1) \qquad (R-r)^2 = (r-x)^2 + (b-c)^2/4
From the right triangle OMBOMB we have R2x2=a2/4R^2 - x^2 = a^2/4. Then using (1) we get ME=Rx=(pb)(pc)/(2r)ME = R-x = (p-b)(p-c)/(2r), where pp is a semiperimeter of ABCABC. Then it is sufficient to prove that
(2)ra=(pb)(pc)r (2) \qquad r_a = \frac{(p-b)(p-c)}{r}
We have r=S/pr = S/p. On the other hand, S=ra(pa)S = r_a(p-a). Then (2) true iff S2=p(pa)(pb)(pc)S^2 = p(p-a)(p-b)(p-c), which is Heron's formula.

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