Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / Auswahlklausur / /2 of 5

Auswahlklausur /, 2014

Geometry Difficulty 8.3 Shortlist Prove it Germany

Let ABCABC be an acute triangle with circumcircle kk and incenter II. The perpendicular to CICI through II intersects side BCBC at UU and kk at VV, where VV and AA lie on different sides of BCBC. The parallel to AIAI through UU intersects AVAV at the point XX.
Prove: If the lines XIXI and AIAI are orthogonal to each other, then XIXI intersects side ACAC at its midpoint MM.

Solution

In the figure, MM is at first only the intersection point of XIXI and ACAC. NN is the intersection point of XUXU and ABAB, and YY is the intersection point of XIXI and ABAB. The half interior angles of triangle ABCABC are denoted by α,β\alpha, \beta and γ\gamma respectively. Since ∠UIC=90∘\angle UIC = 90^{\circ}, we have ∠CUI=α+β\angle CUI = \alpha + \beta and therefore ∠BNU=∠BAI=∠BIU=α\angle BNU = \angle BAI = \angle BIU = \alpha, so that the points B,U,IB, U, I and NN lie on a circle. Hence ΠU‾=IN‾\overline{\Pi U} = \overline{IN} (chords for β\beta) and since X⊥NUX \perp NU it follows that NX‾=XU‾\overline{NX} = \overline{XU}. Applying the intercept theorems leads to
VX‾VA‾=XU‾AI‾=NX‾AI‾=YX‾YI‾ \frac{\overline{VX}}{\overline{VA}} = \frac{\overline{XU}}{\overline{AI}} = \frac{\overline{NX}}{\overline{AI}} = \frac{\overline{YX}}{\overline{YI}}
from which YV∥AIYV \parallel AI follows. Thus also ∠BYV=α=∠BN\angle BYV = \alpha = \angle BN, so

Figure 1

that the points B,V,IB, V, I and YY lie on a circle. Therefore ∠VBI=∠VYI=90∘\angle VBI = \angle VYI = 90^{\circ}. Since the bisectors of the interior and exterior angle at a vertex of a triangle are always orthogonal, BVBV is the bisector of the exterior angle at BB. In the cyclic quadrilateral ABVCABVC (circumcircle of ABCABC) we thus recognize that ∠VAC=∠VBC=α+γ\angle VAC = \angle VBC = \alpha + \gamma and ∠ACV=180∘−∠VBA=180∘−(α+2β+γ)=α+γ\angle ACV = 180^{\circ} - \angle VBA = 180^{\circ} - (\alpha + 2\beta + \gamma) = \alpha + \gamma, hence ∠VAC=∠ACV\angle VAC = \angle ACV. Triangle AVCAVC is thus isosceles with apex VV.

Now, in order to show that MM is the midpoint of ACAC, it suffices to prove ∠VMC=90∘\angle VMC = 90^{\circ}. For this we use, in the cyclic quadrilaterals BVIYBV IY and ABVCABVC, that ∠VIM=180∘−∠YIV=∠VBY=∠VBA=180∘−∠ACV\angle VIM = 180^{\circ} - \angle YIV = \angle VBY = \angle VBA = 180^{\circ} - \angle ACV, so that VCMIVCMI is also a cyclic quadrilateral. This gives ∠VMC=∠VIC=90∘\angle VMC = \angle VIC = 90^{\circ}.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from de; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.