Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.0 AIME, harder Prove it Brazil

Let ABCDABCD be a cyclic quadrilateral and rr and ss the lines obtained reflecting ABAB with respect to the internal bisectors of CAD\angle CAD and CBD\angle CBD, respectively. If PP is the intersection of rr and ss and OO is the center of the circumscribed circle of ABCDABCD, prove that OPOP is perpendicular to CDCD.

Solution

Figure 1
Let EE and FF be the intersections of rr and ss with the circumcircle of ABCDABCD, respectively. Since ABCDABCD is cyclic and BABA and BFBF are symmetric with respect to the bisector of CBD\angle CBD, ACD=ABD=CBF=CAF\angle ACD = \angle ABD = \angle CBF = \angle CAF, hence AFAF and CDCD are parallel. Analogously, BEBE and CDCD are also parallel. Thus, since CDCD, AFAF and BEBE are parallel chords, its perpendicular bisectors coincide.

The intersection PP of AEAE and BFBF belong to this common perpendicular bisector because BEA=EBF\angle BEA = \angle EBF. Thus this common perpendicular bisector is OPOP, which is perpendicular to CDCD and, moreover, passes through its midpoint.

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