Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /15 of 24

Geometry Difficulty 5.9 AIME, harder Prove it Croatia

A triangle ABCABC is given, with altitudes ADAD, BEBE and CFCF, and orthocentre HH. The segments EFEF and ADAD intersect at point GG. The segment AKAK is the diameter of the circumcircle of triangle ABCABC and it intersects BCBC at point MM. Prove that the lines GMGM and HKHK are parallel. (Go Geometry)

Solution

Figure 1
Since BFCBFC is a right-angled triangle, we have BCF=90β\angle BCF = 90^\circ - \beta. As CDHCDH is also a right-angled triangle, we get DHC=β\angle DHC = \beta.
It follows that AHF=β\angle AHF = \beta (because the angles DHC\angle DHC and AHF\angle AHF are vertically opposite).
As ABKCABKC is a cyclic quadrilateral, inscribed angles which subtend AC\overline{AC} are equal to AKC=ABC=β\angle AKC = \angle ABC = \beta. We have that ACK\angle ACK is a right angle because it subtends
the diameter AK\overline{AK} (using Thales' theorem). We now infer that the triangles AFHAFH and ACKACK are similar (because we know that AFH\angle AFH and ACK\angle ACK are right angles, whereas AKC=AHF=β\angle AKC = \angle AHF = \beta). From this similarity, we get
AFAH=ACAK.(4) \frac{|AF|}{|AH|} = \frac{|AC|}{|AK|}. \qquad (4)
We also know that AFHEAFHE is a cyclic quadrilateral, because AFH+HEA=90+90=180\angle AFH + \angle HEA = 90^\circ + 90^\circ = 180^\circ.
Therefore, FEA=FHA=β\angle FEA = \angle FHA = \beta holds, because both these angles subtend the chord AF\overline{AF}. Thus, triangle AFEAFE shares an angle (BAC=FAE\angle BAC = \angle FAE) with triangle ABCABC. Since we also have FEA=β\angle FEA = \beta, it follows that AEFAEF and ABCABC are similar, so that
AEAF=ABAC.(5) \frac{|AE|}{|AF|} = \frac{|AB|}{|AC|}. \qquad (5)
The quadrilateral ABKCABKC being cyclic, we know that the inscribed angles which subtend AB\overline{AB} are equal to BKA=BCA=γ\angle BKA = \angle BCA = \gamma.
In triangle AFEAFE we have AFE=γ\angle AFE = \gamma (by similarity with triangle ABCABC), so its complementary angle equals HFE=90γ\angle HFE = 90^\circ - \gamma. Notice that HAE=HFE=90γ\angle HAE = \angle HFE = 90^\circ - \gamma, because these are both inscribed angles inside the cyclic quadrilateral AFHEAFHE. It follows that the triangles AGEAGE and AMBAMB are similar, so that
AGAE=AMAB.(6) \frac{|AG|}{|AE|} = \frac{|AM|}{|AB|}. \qquad (6)
By multiplying (4), (5) and (6) we obtain the equality of ratios AGAH\frac{|AG|}{|AH|} and AMAK\frac{|AM|}{|AK|}.
Finally, using the converse to the intercept theorem, we conclude that the lines GMGM and HKHK are parallel.

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 reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.