Let ABCDEFGHILMN be a regular dodecagon. Let P be the point of intersection of the diagonals AF and DH. Let S be the circle passing through A and H, congruent to the one circumscribed about the dodecagon and distinct from it. Prove that: (a) P belongs to S; (b) the center of S belongs to the diagonal HN; (c) the length of PE is equal to the side of the dodecagon.
Solution
Solution:
Let T be the circle circumscribed about the dodecagon, and let O be its center; let OS be the center of the circle S and let Q be the midpoint of AH. The points O and OS lie on the perpendicular bisector of AH and, having the same distance from A and H, are symmetric with respect to AH, and also symmetric with respect to Q. Since A and G are opposite vertices of the dodecagon, AG is a diameter of T; it follows that O is also the midpoint of the diagonal AG and that AHG=90∘. By the similarity of triangles AQO and AHG (two right triangles sharing an acute angle), we have QO=21HG and hence OSO=2QO=HG.
The circle S is thus the translate of T by a length equal to the side HG, in the direction GH.
(b): By the regularity of the dodecagon, HL=NL and GL=AL and therefore the lines HN and AG, both perpendicular to the radius LO of T, are parallel. But then HN is the translate of AG with respect to the vector GH, and therefore the center of S lies on HN.
(a) and (c): By what was observed before, if we show that P is the translate of E in the direction GH, we simultaneously prove (a) and (c). Equivalently, we show that E is the translate of P in the direction HG. The translate of P in the direction HG is the intersection of the translates, in the same direction, of AF and BD. But with the same argument used to prove (b) one shows that the translates of AF and DH in the direction HG are the diagonals BE and GE, which intersect at E.
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 translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.