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Geometry Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Brazil

ABCABC is acute-angled. DD is a variable point on the side BCBC. O1O_1 is the circumcenter of ABDABD, O2O_2 is the circumcenter of ACDACD, and OO is the circumcenter of AO1O2AO_1O_2. Find the locus of OO.

Solution

Let OO' be the circumcenter of ABCABC and M,N,PM, N, P be the respective midpoints of AB,AC,ADAB, AC, AD. Notice that O,MO', M and NN are fixed points and, by Thales theorem, PP is a variable point on the segment MNMN. Then O1O_1 is the intersection of the perpendicular bisectors of ABAB and ADAD, O2O_2 is the intersection of the perpendicular bisectors of ADAD and ACAC and, similarly, OO' is the intersection of the perpendicular bisectors of ABAB and ACAC.

Figure 1

Since ANO2=APO2=90\angle ANO_2 = \angle APO_2 = 90^\circ, APNO2APNO_2 is cyclic; analogously, AMO1PAMO_1P is cyclic as well. So O2AN=O2PN=O1PM=O1AM\angle O_2AN = \angle O_2PN = \angle O_1PM = \angle O_1AM. Hence O1AO2=BAC\angle O_1AO_2 = \angle BAC.

Quadrilateral AMONAMO'N is cyclic as well, so MON=180MAN=180BAC\angle MO'N = 180^\circ - \angle MAN = 180^\circ - \angle BAC. Thus O1OO2+O1AO2=180\angle O_1O'O_2 + \angle O_1AO_2 = 180^\circ, which implies that AO1OO2AO_1O'O_2 is cyclic. Its circumcircle is OO, and so OO lies on the perpendicular bisector of AOAO', which is fixed. So the locus is a segment contained in such perpendicular bisector.

It remains to find the vertices of this segment. When DD tends to BB, the perpendicular bisectors of ADAD and ABAB tends to coincide, so O2O_2 and OO' tends to coincide and OO tends to be the circumcenter of AOBAO'B; analogously, when DD tends to CC, OO tends to be the circumcenter of AOCAO'C. So the locus is the open segment with vertices on the circumcenters of AOBAO'B and AOCAO'C.

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