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European Mathematical Cup

Geometry Difficulty 7.3 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it North Macedonia

Let ABCDABCD be a cyclic quadrilateral with the intersection of internal angle bisectors of ∠ABC\angle ABC and ∠ADC\angle ADC lying on the diagonal ACAC. Let MM be the midpoint of ACAC. The line parallel to BCBC that passes through DD intersects the line BMBM in EE and the circumcircle of ABCDABCD at FF where F≠DF \neq D. Prove that BCEFBCEF is a parallelogram.

Solution

We prove the problem in reverse as this is much more natural in this problem.
We note that if BCEFBCEF is a parallelogram then the diagonales are bisecting each other so the point G≡BE∩CFG \equiv BE \cap CF should be the midpoint of CECE.
If GG is the midpoint of CECE then △GBC\triangle GBC and △GEF\triangle GEF are congruent as CG=GFCG = GF and FE∥BCFE \parallel BC gives ∠GEF=∠GBC\angle GEF = \angle GBC and ∠GFE=∠GCB\angle GFE = \angle GCB. Hence this implies BG=GEBG = GE and in particular BCEFBCEF is a parallelogram as its diagonals bisect each other. Hence GG being midpoint of CFCF is equivalent to our problem.
As MM is the midpoint of ACAC by the midline theorem applied to triangle ACFACF we have GG is the midpoint of CGCG if and only if MG∥AFMG \parallel AF. Hence we only need to prove BM∥AFBM \parallel AF.
Now we further notice that, using FD∥BCFD \parallel BC, this is equivalent to ∠AFD=∠MBC\angle AFD = \angle MBC.
We further see that ∠AFD=∠ABD\angle AFD = \angle ABD as they are angles over the same chord. So our claim is equivalent to ∠ABD=∠MBC\angle ABD = \angle MBC.
We add that here depending on the relative position of FF on the circles we might have π−∠AFD=∠MBC\pi - \angle AFD = \angle MBC but then π−∠AFD=∠ABD\pi - \angle AFD = \angle ABD so the final conclusion still holds.
We know that ∠BDA=∠BCM\angle BDA = \angle BCM as they are angles over the same chord. Now this us that our claim is equivalent to the claim △BCM∼△BDA\triangle BCM \sim \triangle BDA.
The same angle equality shows that this is equivalent to BCCM=ADBD\frac{BC}{CM} = \frac{AD}{BD}. Using the fact MM is the midpoint of ACAC we have CM=AC2CM = \frac{AC}{2} so our claim is equivalent to 2AD⋅BC=BD⋅AC2AD \cdot BC = BD \cdot AC.
We further have by the angle bisector theorem applied to △ABC\triangle ABC and △CDA\triangle CDA:
ABBC=AICI=ADCD. \frac{AB}{BC} = \frac{AI}{CI} = \frac{AD}{CD}.
So using this our claim is equivalent to AB⋅CD+AD⋅BC=BD⋅ACAB \cdot CD + AD \cdot BC = BD \cdot AC which we can recognise to the Ptolemy's theorem for cyclic quadrilaterals.

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