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Geometry Difficulty 6.4 National Olympiad Prove it Ukraine

Let ABCDABCD be a quadrilateral circumscribed around a circle with center OO. We construct equal segments AA1AA_1, AA2AA_2, CC1CC_1 and CC2CC_2 on rays ABAB, ADAD, CBCB and CDCD respectively, so that their lengths are greater than that of any side of ABCDABCD, and A1A_1, A2A_2, C1C_1 and C2C_2 are located on the circle with center OO. Prove that lines A1A2A_1A_2, C1C2C_1C_2 and BDBD either intersect at one point or are parallel.

(Olena Artemchuk, Mykola Moroz)

Figure 1
Fig. 38

Solution

Let KK and PP be tangent points of an inscribed circle of ABCDABCD to ABAB and BCBC respectively (Fig. 38). It is that C1PO=A1KO\triangle C_1PO = \triangle A_1KO, since they are right triangles with equal legs KO=POKO = PO and hypotenuses C1O=A1OC_1O = A_1O as radii of respectful circles. Thus we have C1P=A1KC_1P = A_1K. Since BK=BPBK = BP, as two tangent segments that are drawn from the same external point, then C1B=A1BC_1B = A_1B. Similarly, C2D=A2DC_2D = A_2D. Moreover, from the discussion above we find that AB=BCAB = BC and AD=CDAD = CD. Therefore, ABCDABCD is a kite, whose diagonal BDBD is a line of symmetry, hence BB, DD and OO lie on the same line.

Line BDBD passes through the points BB and OO. Those points are equidistant from the endpoints of segment A1C1A_1C_1, hence BB and OO belong to its perpendicular bisector. Similarly, line BDBD is a perpendicular bisector of A2C2A_2C_2. Since BDA1C1BD \perp A_1C_1 and BDA2C2BD \perp A_2C_2, then A1C1A2C2A_1C_1 \parallel A_2C_2.

Next, we consider two cases.

If A1A2C1C2A_1A_2 \parallel C_1C_2, then the quadrilateral A1A2C2C1A_1A_2C_2C_1 is a parallelogram, then A1A2C2C1A_1A_2C_2C_1 is a rectangle. All three lines A1A2A_1A_2, C1C2C_1C_2 and BDBD are perpendicular to A1C1A_1C_1, hence they are parallel.

If A1A2A_1A_2 and C1C2C_1C_2 are not parallel, then the quadrilateral A1A2C2C1A_1A_2C_2C_1 is a trapezoid. Since a line BDBD passes through midpoints of trapezoid bases, then it contains a point of intersection of extensions of legs A1A2A_1A_2 and C1C2C_1C_2. Hence lines A1A2A_1A_2, C1C2C_1C_2 and BDBD intersect at one point.

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