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Geometry Difficulty 6.3 National olympiad Prove it Ukraine

Point PP lies inside triangle ABCABC. Let IAI_A, IBI_B, ICI_C be incenters of triangles PBCPBC, PACPAC, PABPAB respectively. Let IPI_P denote the incenter of triangle IAIBICI_A I_B I_C. Prove that for point PP which satisfies the condition IP=PI_P = P, the following equalities hold:
APBP=ACBC,BPCP=BACA,CPAP=CBAB. AP - BP = AC - BC, \quad BP - CP = BA - CA, \quad CP - AP = CB - AB.

Solution

Let us denote the points A=APIBICA' = AP \cap I_B I_C, B=BPIAICB' = BP \cap I_A I_C, C=CPIBIAC' = CP \cap I_B I_A (see Fig. 11).

IP=PI_P = P implies that IAPI_A P is a bisector of BPC\angle BPC and IBIAIC\angle I_B I_A I_C, therefore two couples of lines IAIBI_A I_B, IAICI_A I_C, and also BPBP, CPCP are symmetric with respect to IAPI_A P. Thus, (IAIB,CP)=(BP,IAIC)\angle (I_A I_B, CP) = \angle (BP, I_A I_C) (oriented angles).

By analogy,
(IBIC,AP)=(CP,IBIA)\angle (I_B I_C, AP) = \angle (CP, I_B I_A),
(ICIA,BP)=(AP,ICIB)\angle (I_C I_A, BP) = \angle (AP, I_C I_B),
hence,
(IAIB,CP)=(BP,IAIC)=(AP,ICIB)=(CP,IBIA)CPIBIA\angle (I_A I_B, CP) = \angle (BP, I_A I_C) = -\angle (AP, I_C I_B) = \angle (CP, I_B I_A) \Rightarrow CP \perp I_B I_A.

Feet of perpendicular from incenter to the side of triangle coincide with the point where incircle touches this side, hence, incircles of PAC\triangle PAC and PBCPBC touch CPCP at CC'. Therefore, they touch each other at CC'. Analogously, incircles of PAB\triangle PAB, PBC\triangle PBC touch PBPB at BB', and AA' - incircles of PAC\triangle PAC, PAB\triangle PAB.

Let AA'' be the point where incircle of PBC\triangle PBC touches BCBC. We define BB'', CC'' in the same way. Then

Figure 1
Fig. 11

AP+BC=PA+AA+BA+AC=PB+AB+BB+BC=BP+AC. AP + BC = PA' + AA' + BA'' + A''C = PB' + AB'' + BB' + B''C = BP + AC.

Following the same lines, we get AP+BC=CP+ABAP + BC = CP + AB. Hence, PP is such a point that APBP=ACBCAP - BP = AC - BC, BPCP=BACABP - CP = BA - CA, CPAP=CBABCP - AP = CB - AB, and we are done.

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