Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /2 of 48

Geometry Difficulty 6.3 National olympiad Prove it Asia Pacific Mathematics Olympiad (APMO)

Let ABCDABCD be a parallelogram. Let WW, XX, YY, and ZZ be points on sides ABAB, BCBC, CDCD, and DADA, respectively, such that the incenters of triangles AWZAWZ, BXWBXW, CYXCYX and DZYDZY form a parallelogram. Prove that WXYZWXYZ is a parallelogram.

Solution

Let the four incenters be I1I_{1}, I2I_{2}, I3I_{3}, and I4I_{4} with inradii r1r_{1}, r2r_{2}, r3r_{3}, and r4r_{4} respectively (in the order given in the question). Without loss of generality, let I1I_{1} be closer to ABAB than I2I_{2}. Let the acute angle between I1I2I_{1}I_{2} and ABAB (and hence also the angle between I3I4I_{3}I_{4} and CDCD) be θ\theta. Then
r2r1=I1I2sinθ=I3I4sinθ=r4r3, r_{2}-r_{1}=I_{1}I_{2} \sin \theta=I_{3}I_{4} \sin \theta=r_{4}-r_{3},
which implies r1+r4=r2+r3r_{1}+r_{4}=r_{2}+r_{3}. Similar arguments show that r1+r2=r3+r4r_{1}+r_{2}=r_{3}+r_{4}. Thus we obtain r1=r3r_{1}=r_{3} and r2=r4r_{2}=r_{4}.
Figure 1
Now let's consider the possible positions of WW, XX, YY, ZZ. Suppose AZCXAZ \neq CX. Without loss of generality assume AZ>CXAZ>CX. Since the incircles of AWZAWZ and CYXCYX are symmetric about the centre of the parallelogram ABCDABCD, this implies CY>AWCY>AW. Using similar arguments, we have
CY>AWBW>DYDZ>BXCX>AZ, CY>AW \Longrightarrow BW>DY \Longrightarrow DZ>BX \Longrightarrow CX>AZ,
which is a contradiction. Therefore AZ=CXAW=CYAZ=CX \Longrightarrow AW=CY and WXYZWXYZ is a parallelogram.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.