Let be an acute-angled triangle. Point on the altitude of vertex and points and on the extensions of the altitudes of vertices and are selected such that,
Prove that , and are collinear if and only if the length of the tangent from vertex to the nine-point circle of the triangle is equal to the sum of the lengths of tangents from vertices and to this circle.
Solution
We denote the feet of altitudes of vertices , and by , and , respectively. Firstly, we prove that if , and are collinear then the length of the tangent from to the nine-point circle of triangle (which we denote by ) is equal to the sum of the lengths of tangents from vertices and to this circle.
So the length of the tangent from to is . Similarly, the lengths of tangents from vertices and are equal to and , respectively. If , and lie on a common line we have and (1). Since , we get . In the same manner, we infer and . Using (1) we can deduce . The quadrilateral is cyclic and so . Therefore,
Thus, and so . From these results, we get . Hence, and so , which is what we wanted to show.
For the converse we present the following lemma.
Lemma 1. Let and be two perpendicular circles meeting each other at two points and . Then, There are exactly two points like on the line satisfying the following property. If and are tangents from to and , respectively, such and are in two different sides of . We have , and are on a common line. Furthermore, these two points are symmetric with respect to the line of centers of and and power of them with respect to and are both equal to , where is the radius of .
Proof. First note that if the point has this property, we have
And since ( is the center of ), we get
So we must have .
Now for the existence of such , consider points and on and , respectively, such that . Note that we can choose such points in a unique way in one side of . It is easy to see , and are collinear. Therefore, if is the intersection point of the tangent to at and the tangent to at , we infer
So . Thus, lies on the radical axis of and . On the other hand, in the hexagon we have
Hence, , and obviously , as desired.
Now for the main problem note that circle with center and radius is perpendicular to the circle with center and radius , because . Furthermore, since , is tangent to at and is tangent to at . On the other hand , so according to the lemma the point having this property is unique in one side of . Therefore, again by lemma , and are collinear.