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Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad

Geometry Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it Brazil

ABCDABCD is a rhombus. Take points E,F,G,HE, F, G, H on sides AB,BC,CD,DAAB, BC, CD, DA respectively so that EFEF and GHGH are tangent to the incircle of ABCDABCD. Show that EHEH and FGFG are parallel.

Solution

Let OO be the center of the incircle. We show first that AE⋅CF=AO2AE \cdot CF = AO^2. Let ∠AOE=θ\angle AOE = \theta. Then if OXOX is the perpendicular from OO to ABAB, we have ∠AOX=B/2\angle AOX = B/2 and hence ∠XOE=θ−B/2\angle XOE = \theta - B/2. If EFEF touches the circle at YY, ∠EOY=∠XOE\angle EOY = \angle XOE, so ∠BEF=2(θ−B/2)=2θ−B\angle BEF = 2(\theta - B/2) = 2\theta - B. Hence ∠BFE=180∘−2θ\angle BFE = 180^\circ - 2\theta. Hence ∠CFE=2θ\angle CFE = 2\theta. So ∠CFO=θ\angle CFO = \theta. So we have established that ∠AOE=∠CFO\angle AOE = \angle CFO. But ∠EAO=∠OCF\angle EAO = \angle OCF (since ABCDABCD is a rhombus), so AOEAOE and CFOCFO are similar. Hence AE/AO=CO/CF⇔AE⋅CF=AO2AE/AO = CO/CF \Leftrightarrow AE \cdot CF = AO^2.

Similarly, AH⋅CG=AO2AH \cdot CG = AO^2. Hence AH/AE=CF/CGAH/AE = CF/CG. So AHEAHE and CFGCFG are similar. So ∠AEH=∠CGF\angle AEH = \angle CGF, so EHEH and FGFG are parallel.

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