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Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad

Geometry Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it Brazil

Let ABCDABCD be a convex quadrilateral. Prove that the incircles of the triangles ABCABC, BCDBCD, CDACDA and DABDAB have a point in common if, and only if, ABCDABCD is a rhombus.

Solution

If ABCDABCD is a rhombus the incircle touch the respective triangle in the midpoint of the diagonals, which belongs to all four circles.

Now suppose the circles have a common point PP. Since the incircle are contained in its triangle and the intersection of the triangles ABCABC, BCDBCD, CDACDA, DABDAB is the intersection of the diagonals, PP must coincide with OO.

Let's prove that the diagonals are perpendicular. Suppose that it's not the case. So we may suppose without loss of generality that ∠AOB=∠COD>90∘\angle AOB = \angle COD > 90^\circ. Let l1,l2,l3l_1, l_2, l_3 and l4l_4 be the incenters of ABCABC, BCDBCD, CDACDA and DABDAB, respectively. Thus l1l_1 and l4l_4 are in the interior of ∠ABC\angle ABC and l2l_2 and l3l_3 are in the interior of ∠COD\angle COD.

Figure 1

Let EE and FF be the intersection of AI4AI_4, BI1BI_1 and CI2CI_2, DI3DI_3, respectively. So ∠BEA>∠AOB>90∘⇒180∘−∠DAB2−∠ABC2>90∘⇔∠DAB+∠ABC<180∘\angle BEA > \angle AOB > 90^\circ \Rightarrow 180^\circ - \frac{\angle DAB}{2} - \frac{\angle ABC}{2} > 90^\circ \Leftrightarrow \angle DAB + \angle ABC < 180^\circ. Using a similar argument on FF we obtain ∠BCD+∠CDA<180∘\angle BCD + \angle CDA < 180^\circ. Summing these two inequalities, we obtain that the sum of the internal angles of the quadrilateral ABCDABCD is less than 360∘360^\circ, contradiction. So ACAC and BDBD are perpendicular and, moreover, the four incenters l1,l2,l3l_1, l_2, l_3 and l4l_4 lie in the diagonals. This means that the bisectors and altitudes from vertices A,B,C,DA, B, C, D with respect to the triangles DABDAB, ABCABC, BCDBCD, CDACDA coincide and hence these triangles are isosceles. Thus DA=AB=BC=CDDA = AB = BC = CD and ABCDABCD is a rhombus.

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