Maths Olympiad Prep

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South-Afrika, 2011

Geometry Difficulty 7.5 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it South Africa

The acute-angled triangle ABCABC has circumcentre OO and orthocentre HH. The perpendicular bisector of BHBH meets ABAB at QQ, the perpendicular bisector of CHCH meets ACAC at PP and these two bisectors meet at RR.

a. Prove that the circumcircles of AOPAOP, PORPOR, ROQROQ and QOAQOA have equal radii. When are they equal in radius to the circumcircle of triangle ABCABC?

b. Prove that if PQPQ passes through OO, then it also passes through HH. What can be said about ∠BAC\angle BAC in this case?

Solution

a. Note that RR is the circumcentre of triangle BHCBHC, hence OROR bisects BCBC. Also, ∠BRC=2∠(180∘−∠BHC)=2∠QRP=2∠A=∠BOC\angle BRC = 2\angle(180^\circ - \angle BHC) = 2\angle QRP = 2\angle A = \angle BOC, so it follows that RR is the reflection of OO across the line BCBC.

Next, since QRQR is perpendicular to BHBH, which is perpendicular to ACAC, we have that AC∥QRAC \parallel QR, and hence ∠BQR=∠A=∠BOR\angle BQR = \angle A = \angle BOR, which shows that BQORBQOR is a cyclic quadrilateral. Using the sine rule in triangle BQRBQR we see that the circumradius of triangle BQRBQR is equal to BR2sin⁡BQR=R2sin⁡A\frac{BR}{2\sin BQR} = \frac{R}{2\sin A}, where RR is the circumradius of triangle ABCABC. Similarly, CPORCPOR is a cyclic quadrilateral with circumradius R2sin⁡A\frac{R}{2\sin A}.

Let the line through OO perpendicular to BHBH meet BHBH in KK and ABAB in LL, let the foot of the altitude from BB be EE and let the midpoint of BHBH be MM. It is well known that AH=ORAH = OR, and hence, since AH∥ORAH \parallel OR and QR∥OK∥ACQR \parallel OK \parallel AC, it follows that HE=MK  ⟹  KE=MH=BM  ⟹  AL=BQHE = MK \implies KE = MH = BM \implies AL = BQ. Hence LL and QQ are symmetric about the midpoint of ABAB, and so OQ=OLOQ = OL. Hence, since OL∥ACOL \parallel AC, ∠OQA=∠OLQ=∠A\angle OQA = \angle OLQ = \angle A.

Using the sine rule in triangle OAQ shows that it has circumradius
AO2sin⁡∠AQO=R2sin⁡A\frac{AO}{2 \sin \angle AQO} = \frac{R}{2 \sin A}. Similarly, ∠OPA=∠A\angle OPA = \angle A and triangle OAP has circumradius R2sin⁡A\frac{R}{2 \sin A}.

These radii are equal to RR if and only if sin⁡A=12\sin A = \frac{1}{2}, i.e. if and only if ∠A=30∘\angle A = 30^\circ.

Figure 1

b. Since QRQR is the perpendicular bisector of BHBH, we have that ∠HQR=∠BQR=∠A\angle HQR = \angle BQR = \angle A. Considering the opposite angles of these two angles and recalling that ∠AQO=∠A\angle AQO = \angle A, we have that ∠HQO+180∘=3∠A⇒∠HQO=3∠A−180∘\angle HQO + 180^\circ = 3\angle A \Rightarrow \angle HQO = 3\angle A - 180^\circ. Next, since ∠OQA=∠A=∠OPQ\angle OQA = \angle A = \angle OPQ, it follows that ∠POQ=360∘−3∠A\angle POQ = 360^\circ - 3\angle A. Hence ∠POQ+HQO=360∘−3∠A+3∠A−180∘=180∘\angle POQ + HQO = 360^\circ - 3\angle A + 3\angle A - 180^\circ = 180^\circ, which shows that OP∥QHOP \parallel QH. Hence, if PQPQ passes through OO, it also passes through HH. In this case, ∠HQO=0∘=3∠A−180∘\angle HQO = 0^\circ = 3\angle A - 180^\circ, implying that ∠A=60∘\angle A = 60^\circ.

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