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Austria competition problems, 2010

Geometry Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Austria

We are given a triangle ABCABC and a point DD on the side BCBC. Let UU be the circumcenter of △BDA\triangle BDA and VV the circumcenter of △CDA\triangle CDA. Prove that the triangles AUVAUV and ABCABC are similar.
G. Baron, Vienna

Solution

Let the point C′C' be chosen in such a way that triangles △ABC\triangle ABC and △ACC′\triangle ACC' are similar and have no common interior points. Furthermore, let D′D' be chosen on CC′CC' such that triangles △ABD\triangle ABD and △ACD′\triangle ACD' are also similar. This means that △ACC′\triangle ACC' results from △ABC\triangle ABC by rotation and subsequent homothety with ratio AC:ABAC : AB, both with center AA.

Figure 1

Since ∠D′CD=∠D′CA+∠ACD=∠CBA+∠ACB\angle D'CD = \angle D'CA + \angle ACD = \angle CBA + \angle ACB and ∠D′AD=∠CAB\angle D'AD = \angle CAB, we see that ∠D′CD+∠D′AD=180∘\angle D'CD + \angle D'AD = 180^\circ. This means that the points AA, DD, CC and D′D' lie on a common circle. The circumcenter VV of △CDA\triangle CDA is therefore also the circumcenter of △CD′A\triangle CD'A, and therefore results from the circumcenter UU of △BDA\triangle BDA by rotation and subsequent homothety with ratio AC:ABAC : AB, both with center AA.

We therefore see that ∠UAV=∠BAC\angle UAV = \angle BAC and AU:AV=AB:ACAU : AV = AB : AC. Triangles ABCABC and AUVAUV are therefore similar, as claimed.

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