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Romanian Mathematical Olympiad

Geometry Difficulty 6.6 National Olympiad Prove it Romania

Let HH be the orthocenter of the acute triangle ABCABC and let XX be the midpoint of the side BCBC. The perpendicular at HH to HXHX intersects the sides ABAB and ACAC at the points YY and ZZ respectively. Let OO be the circumcenter of the triangle ABCABC and O′O' be the circumcenter of the triangle BHCBHC. Prove that:
a) HY=HZHY = HZ;
b) AY→+AZ→=2OO′→\overrightarrow{AY} + \overrightarrow{AZ} = 2\overrightarrow{OO'}.

Solution

a) Let A′A' be the point diametrically opposite to AA on the circumcircle of the triangle ABCABC. It is known that HH and A′A' are symmetric with respect to XX, so HH, XX and A′A' are collinear. Then ∠ABA′=∠ACA′=90∘\angle ABA' = \angle ACA' = 90^\circ. Thus, the quadrilaterals A′BYHA'BYH and A′CZHA'CZH are cyclic, therefore ∠YBH=∠YA′H\angle YBH = \angle YA'H and ∠ZCH=∠ZA′H\angle ZCH = \angle ZA'H.
On the other hand, from the right triangles BEABEA and CFACFA we have ∠ABE=∠ACF=90∘−∠BAC\angle ABE = \angle ACF = 90^\circ - \angle BAC (EE and FF are the feet of the altitudes from BB and CC respectively).
Consequently ∠YA′H=∠ZA′H\angle YA'H = \angle ZA'H, so A′HA'H is both an altitude and an angle bisector in the triangle YA′ZYA'Z, so it is also a median, that is HY=HZHY = HZ.

b) From a) it follows that AZ→+AY→=2AH→\overrightarrow{AZ} + \overrightarrow{AY} = 2\overrightarrow{AH}.
It is known that the symmetrical H′H' of the orthocenter HH with respect to the side BCBC is on the circumcircle of the triangle ABCABC, so the symmetrical of the circumcircle of the triangle BHCBHC with respect to BCBC is the circumcircle of the triangle BH′CBH'C, i.e. the circumcircle of the triangle ABCABC. Thus, the center of the circumcircle of the triangle BHCBHC is symmetrical to OO with respect to BCBC.
We deduce that OO′→=2OX→=AH→\overrightarrow{OO'} = 2\overrightarrow{OX} = \overrightarrow{AH}, since OXOX is a midline in triangle HA′AHA'A.
From here it follows AZ→+AY→=2OO′→\overrightarrow{AZ} + \overrightarrow{AY} = 2\overrightarrow{OO'}.

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