Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.3 National Olympiad Prove it Romania

Let ABCABC be an acute triangle in which AB<ACAB < AC. Let MM be the midpoint of the side BCBC and consider DD an arbitrary point of the line segment AMAM. Let EE be a point of the line segment BDBD and consider the point FF of the line ABAB such that lines EFEF and BCBC are parallel. If the orthocenter, HH, of the triangle ABCABC lies at the intersection point of lines AEAE and DFDF, prove that the angle bisectors of BAC\angle BAC and BDC\angle BDC meet on the line BCBC.

Solution

Let DD' be the orthogonal projection of HH onto AMAM, EE' the intersection point of the lines BDBD' and AHAH, and let FF' be the intersection point of the lines DHD'H and ABAB. We prove that D=DD' = D, E=EE' = E, F=FF' = F, hence HDAMHD \perp AM.
Let H0H_0 and D0D'_0 be the reflections across the point MM, of the points HH and DD', respectively. It is well known that H0H_0 is the antipode of AA on the circumcircle of triangle ABCABC and, as H0D0A=HDM=90\angle H_0D'_0A = \angle HD'M = 90^\circ, point D0D'_0 also lies on the circumcircle of ABCABC. Thus, points B,C,H,DB, C, H, D' all lie on the reflection of this circle across MM, i.e. the quadrilateral BHDCBHD'C is cyclic. It follows that HDE=HDB=HCB=90B=FAH\angle HD'E' = \angle HD'B = \angle HCB = 90^\circ - \angle B = \angle F'AH, which means that the quadrilateral AFEDAF'E'D' is cyclic. We obtain that FEA=FDA=90\angle F'E'A = \angle F'D'A = 90^\circ, which means that lines EFE'F' and BCBC are parallel. If DD is between AA and DD', then EE is between AA and EE', and FF is between BB and FF' (where FF is the intersection point of the lines DHDH and ABAB), hence EFEF can not be parallel to BCBC. Similarly in the case when DD is between DD' and MM. It follows that it is necessary to have D=DD = D', and then E=EE = E', F=FF = F'.
As ABD0CABD'_0C is cyclic, we have ABD0=180ACD0\angle ABD'_0 = 180^\circ - \angle ACD'_0, and therefore sin(ABD0)=sin(ACD0)\sin(\angle ABD'_0) = \sin(\angle ACD'_0). But since MM is the midpoint of BCBC, triangles ABD0ABD'_0 and ACD0ACD'_0 have the same area surface, i.e. ABBD0sin(ABD0)=ACCD0sin(ABD0)AB \cdot BD'_0 \sin(\angle ABD'_0) = AC \cdot CD'_0 \sin(\angle ABD'_0), hence ABBD0=ACCD0AB \cdot BD'_0 = AC \cdot CD'_0, or ABCD=ACBDAB \cdot CD = AC \cdot BD, which means ABAC=DBDC\frac{AB}{AC} = \frac{DB}{DC}. The converse of the Angle Bisector Theorem proves the conclusion.

Figure 1

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