Suppose , are points on the sides , , respectively, of a triangle , and the following are known: , , , . Suppose, furthermore, the circum-circle of the triangle intersects the side at two points , and the points , , , are lined up in this order. If the point of intersection of the lines and lies on the circum-circle of the triangle , find the value of . Here denotes the length of the line segment as well.
, 2019
Solution
Let be the point of intersection of the lines and , and let , be the point of intersection of the lines and , , respectively. Let be the point of intersection, different from , of the circum-circle of the triangle and the line . Let be the answer to the problem we seek. Then, we have . From it follows that , and we get . Consequently, we have
By the theorem on the power of a point with respect a circle, we have , . Combining with the result above, we conclude that .
If we consider the similarity map which expands the triangle into the triangle with the similarity ratio , we see that the point is mapped onto the point under this similarity mapping. Since is mapped onto under this similarity map, we get . Combining this with the fact , we obtain
Consequently, we obtain and combining this with , we obtain . Since , we obtain . From the fact that , we have , so from it follows that . Solving this equation and noting that , we obtain as the desired answer.