Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.7 National Olympiad Prove it Romania

Let XYZTXYZT be a parallelogram and A,B,C,DA, B, C, D variable points on the sides XY,XT,TZ,ZYXY, XT, TZ, ZY, respectively, such that ABCDABCD is a cyclic quadrilateral with circumcenter OO, ACXTAC \parallel XT, and BDXYBD \parallel XY. Let PP be the intersection of lines ADAD and BCBC, and QQ be the intersection of lines ABAB and CDCD. Prove that the circle (POQ)(POQ) passes through a fixed point as A,B,C,DA, B, C, D vary according to the given restrictions.

Solution

The key idea for this problem lies in the following lemma:

Lemma: Let ABCABC be a triangle and XX a point in the interior of angle BAC\angle BAC such that ABX=ACX\angle ABX = \angle ACX. Define YY such that BXCBXC is a parallelogram. Then AXAX and AYAY are isogonal with respect to BAC\angle BAC.

Proof. Consider the triangle ABCABC. Since BXCBXC is a parallelogram, we have BXACBX \parallel AC and CXABCX \parallel AB. By the alternate interior angles theorem, we have XBA=XCB\angle XBA = \angle XCB. Since ABX=ACX\angle ABX = \angle ACX, we can conclude that XAB=XCA\angle XAB = \angle XCA. Thus, AXAX and AYAY are isogonal with respect to BAC\angle BAC. \square

Now, let's proceed with the solution to the main problem. We need to prove that the circle (POQ)(POQ) passes through a fixed point as A,B,C,DA, B, C, D vary according to the given restrictions.

Let OO' be the intersection of lines BDBD and ACAC. Since ACXTAC \parallel XT and BDXYBD \parallel XY, by the Lemma, we know that APAP and AQAQ are isogonal with respect to XOY\angle XO'Y.

Since ABCDABCD is a cyclic quadrilateral, we have ABC=ADC\angle ABC = \angle ADC. Thus, PBC=PDC\angle PBC = \angle PDC. This implies that PBPB and PDPD are isogonal with respect to ABC\angle ABC. Similarly, QAQA and QCQC are isogonal with respect to ADC\angle ADC.

Therefore, we have ABP=DCQ\angle ABP = \angle DCQ and BAP=CQD\angle BAP = \angle CQD. Combining these equalities, we get ABO=DCO\angle ABO' = \angle DCO'. This implies that ABODABO'D is a cyclic quadrilateral.

Let OO be the circumcenter of ABODABO'D. Since ABCDABCD is a cyclic quadrilateral, OO is also the circumcenter of ABCDABCD. Therefore, OO lies on the circle (POQ)(POQ).

Thus, we have shown that as A,B,C,DA, B, C, D vary according to the given restrictions, the circle (POQ)(POQ) passes through the fixed point OO. This completes the proof.

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