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Geometry Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Taiwan

There is a triangle ABCABC in the plane, whose circumcircle is Γ\Gamma. Let point AA' be the antipodal point of AA on Γ\Gamma. Construct an equilateral triangle BCDBCD such that A,DA, D lie on opposite sides of BCBC. Let the line through AA' perpendicular to ADA'D meet lines AC,ABAC, AB at points E,FE, F respectively. Taking EFEF as the base, construct an isosceles triangle ETFETF with base angle 3030^\circ, such that A,TA, T lie on opposite sides of EFEF. Prove that ATAT passes through the nine-point center NN of triangle ABCABC.

Note: The nine-point circle of triangle ABCABC refers to the circle passing through the nine points consisting of the midpoints of the three sides, the feet of the three altitudes, and the midpoints of the three segments from the vertices to the orthocenter.

Solution

We first prove two lemmas.

Lemma 1. Let P,QP, Q be a pair of isogonal conjugate points of ABC\triangle ABC. If O,Oa,Ob,Oc,TO, O_a, O_b, O_c, T are respectively the circumcenters of ABC,BPC,CPA,APB\triangle ABC, \triangle BPC, \triangle CPA, \triangle APB and OaObOc\triangle O_aO_bO_c, then PQPQ is parallel to OTOT.

Proof of Lemma 1. Let QaQbQc\triangle Q_aQ_bQ_c be the pedal triangle of QQ with respect to ABC\triangle ABC, and let VV be the circumcenter of QaQbQc\triangle Q_aQ_bQ_c. Since QbQc,QcQa,QaQbQ_bQ_c, Q_cQ_a, Q_aQ_b are respectively perpendicular to AP,BP,CPAP, BP, CP, the configuration QaQbQcQV\triangle Q_aQ_bQ_c \cup Q \cup V is homothetic to OaObOcOT\triangle O_aO_bO_c \cup O \cup T. Since VV is the midpoint of PQPQ, it follows that OTOT is parallel to PQPQ. This completes the proof of Lemma 1.

Lemma 2. Given ABC\triangle ABC and a point UU such that BUC\triangle BUC is equilateral. Let VV be the isogonal conjugate of UU with respect to ABC\triangle ABC. Then UVUV is parallel to the Euler line of ABC\triangle ABC.

Proof of Lemma 2. Let BV,CVBV, CV meet the circumcircle of ABC\triangle ABC at points E,FE, F respectively, and let NN be the midpoint of EFEF. Let G,OG, O be respectively the centroid and circumcenter of ABC\triangle ABC, and let MM be the midpoint of BCBC. By an angle computation, AEF\triangle AEF is equilateral, so A,O,NA, O, N are collinear, and
ONAO=12=GMAG, \frac{ON}{AO} = \frac{1}{2} = \frac{GM}{AG},
hence MNMN is parallel to the Euler line GOGO of ABC\triangle ABC.

On the other hand, by an angle computation we have VBU=FAC\angle^*VBU = \angle^*FAC, VCU=EAB\angle^*VCU = \angle^*EAB (here \angle^* denotes a directed angle), so by using the Law of Sines to compute directed areas, we get
[UMV][UNV]=12([UBV]+[UCV])12([UEV]+[UFV])=12([UBE]+[UCF])=0. \begin{align*} [\triangle UMV] - [\triangle UNV] \\ &= \frac{1}{2}([\triangle UBV] + [\triangle UCV]) - \frac{1}{2}([\triangle UEV] + [\triangle UFV]) \\ &= \frac{1}{2}([\triangle UBE] + [\triangle UCF]) = 0. \end{align*}
This means that MNMN is parallel to UVUV, and hence UVUV is also parallel to the Euler line of ABC\triangle ABC. This completes the proof of Lemma 2.

Returning to the original problem. Let OO be the circumcenter of ABC\triangle ABC, and let VV be the reflection of OO across BCBC.
Since the midpoint of AVA'V is the nine-point center of ABC\triangle A'BC and NN is the midpoint of AVAV, ANAN is parallel to the Euler line of ABC\triangle A'BC. Hence it suffices to further prove that ATAT is parallel to the Euler line of ABC\triangle A'BC.

Let X,Y,Z,KX, Y, Z, K be respectively the circumcenters of BCD,ABD,ACD\triangle BCD, \triangle A'BD, \triangle A'CD and XYZ\triangle XYZ.
Since XY,XZXY, XZ are respectively perpendicular to BD,CDBD, CD, we have YOZ=120\angle^*YOZ = 120^\circ. Hence KYZ\triangle KYZ is an isosceles triangle with base YZYZ and base angle 3030^\circ. Also note that YZ,ZO,OYYZ, ZO, OY are respectively perpendicular to AD,AC,ABA'D, A'C, A'B, so AEF\triangle AEF is homothetic to OZY\triangle OZY. Hence AEFT\triangle AEF \cup T is homothetic to OZYK\triangle OZY \cup K, from which it follows that ATAT is parallel to OKOK.

On the other hand, let DD' be the isogonal conjugate of DD with respect to ABC\triangle A'BC. By Lemma 1, DDDD' is parallel to OKOK. Also, by Lemma 2, DDDD' is parallel to the Euler line of ABC\triangle A'BC. Combining the above, we obtain that ATAT is parallel to the Euler line of ABC\triangle A'BC. This completes the proof.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from zh; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.