Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.1 National Olympiad Prove it Brazil

Let ABCABC be a triangle, MM be the midpoint of side ACAC and NN be the midpoint of side ABAB. Let rr and ss be the reflections of lines BMBM and CNCN across line BCBC, respectively. Lines rr and ss meet line MNMN at points DD and EE, respectively. The circumcircles of BDMBDM and CENCEN meet at points XX and YY, lines BEBE and CDCD meet at ZZ and lines rr and ss meet at WW. Prove that lines XYXY, WZWZ and BCBC meet at a single point.

Solution

Figure 1
First, notice that MNBCMN \parallel BC, so WDDB=EWEC\frac{WD}{DB} = \frac{EW}{EC}. Applying Ceva's theorem to triangle BCWBCW and cevians WPWP, CDCD and BEBE we have WDDBBPPCCEEW=1    BP=PC\frac{WD}{DB} \cdot \frac{BP}{PC} \cdot \frac{CE}{EW} = 1 \iff BP = PC, so WZWZ meets BCBC at its midpoint PP.

Now it remains to prove that PP lies on line XYXY, which is the radical axis of the two circles. But, because of the reflection and the fact that MNBCMN \parallel BC,

MBC=CBW=MDB\angle MBC = \angle CBW = \angle MDB, and thus BCBC is tangent to the circumcircle of BDMBDM. The power of PP with respect to this circle is PB2=BC2/4PB^2 = BC^2/4. Analogously, the power of PP with respect to the circumcircle of CENCEN is BC2/4BC^2/4, and thus PP lies on the radical axis of these circles, and we are done.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.