Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.8 National Olympiad Prove it Italy

Problem:

Let ABCABC be a scalene triangle with BC>CA>ABBC > CA > AB. Let ω\omega and γ\gamma be the circles passing through AA with center, respectively, BB and CC. They intersect the segment BCBC in MM and NN, respectively. We construct ZZ as the reflection of AA with respect to the midpoint of MNMN.

a. Calling PP the intersection of ZMZM with ACAC, show that CPMCPM is isosceles.

b. Denoting by XX the intersection of ZMZM with ω\omega distinct from MM, show that BXBX and ACAC are parallel.

c. Denoting by YY the intersection of ZNZN with γ\gamma distinct from NN, show that A,XA, X and YY are collinear.

Solution

Solution:

a. The quadrilateral ANZMANZM is a parallelogram because the diagonals intersect at their midpoint by construction. The lines ANAN and MZMZ are therefore parallel. On this pair of parallel lines, the transversals CNCN and CACA cut off equal corresponding angles (CMP=CNA\angle CMP = \angle CNA and CPM=CAN\angle CPM = \angle CAN). It remains only to observe that CA=CNCA = CN because they are radii of the circle γ\gamma: from this it follows that the triangle NCANCA is isosceles on NANA, hence that the base angles CAN=CNA\angle CAN = \angle CNA are equal. In conclusion, we know that
CPM=CAN=CNA=CMP \angle CPM = \angle CAN = \angle CNA = \angle CMP
that is, that MCP\triangle MCP is isosceles on MPMP.

Figure 1

b. The triangle BMXBMX is isosceles because BM=BXBM = BX are radii of the circle ω\omega, hence the base angles BXM=BMX\angle BXM = \angle BMX are equal. Moreover, BMX\angle BMX is vertically opposite to CMP\angle CMP, and they are therefore equal to each other. It follows, by point (a), that all the angles in question are also equal to MPC\angle MPC:
BXM=BMX=CMP=MPC. \angle BXM = \angle BMX = \angle CMP = \angle MPC.
The equality between the two extremes tells us that the transversal PXPX cuts off on the pair of lines BXBX and ACAC equal alternate interior angles, thereby proving their parallelism.

Figure 2

c. The triangle ABXABX is isosceles because BA=BXBA = BX are radii of the circle ω\omega, hence the base angles BAX=BXA\angle BAX = \angle BXA are equal. The transversal AXAX cuts off on the pair of lines BXACBX \parallel AC, parallel by point (b), equal alternate interior angles BXA=CAX\angle BXA = \angle CAX. We have obtained that
BAX=BXA=CAX \angle BAX = \angle BXA = \angle CAX
that is, that XX lies on the bisector of the angle BAC\angle BAC. Repeating the same reasoning for the point YY, with the appropriate changes of letters, we obtain that it too lies on the bisector of the angle BAC\angle BAC, which gives the thesis.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.