Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 7.9 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Balkan Mathematical Olympiad

Let ABCABC be a triangle, OO its circumcenter and ADAD the bisector of the angle AA where DBCD \in BC. Let \ell be the line passing through OO and parallel to the bisector ADAD. Prove that \ell passes through the orthocenter HH of the triangle ABCABC if and only if ABCABC is isosceles or BAC=120\angle BAC = 120^{\circ}.

Solution

Let GG be the center of mass of the triangle ABCABC.
Assume that OHADOH \parallel AD. Since G,O,HG, O, H are collinear, then OGADOG \parallel AD. Suppose that ADAD meets the circumcircle of ABCABC again at point MM and consider the midpoints K,NK, N of MC,ACMC, AC, respectively. Let the lines OGOG and BKBK meet at SS and let the lines MOMO and BKBK meet at TT. Then NKADNK \parallel AD and TT is the center of mass of the isosceles triangle MBCMBC. Therefore we have
OGADOGNKBSSK=2BSSK=BTTKT=S. OG \parallel AD \Rightarrow OG \parallel NK \Rightarrow \frac{BS}{SK} = 2 \Rightarrow \frac{BS}{SK} = \frac{BT}{TK} \Rightarrow T = S.
If SOS \neq O, then the lines OS,OTOS, OT and ADAD coincide and ABCABC is isosceles. If T=S=OT = S = O, then the triangle MBCMBC is equilateral, BMC=60\angle BMC = 60^{\circ} and BAC=120\angle BAC = 120^{\circ}.

Figure 1

To prove the converse assume that BAC=120\angle BAC = 120^{\circ}. Then BMC=60\angle BMC = 60^{\circ} and the triangle BMCBMC is equilateral. Hence OO coincide with the center of mass TT of the triangle BMCBMC.
Since BGGN=2=BOOK\frac{BG}{GN} = 2 = \frac{BO}{OK}, it follows that OHOGKNADOH \parallel OG \parallel KN \parallel AD.

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