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Geometry Difficulty 7.1 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it

Let ABCA B C be an acute triangle such that ABACA B \neq A C, with circumcircle Γ\Gamma and circumcenter OO. Let MM be the midpoint of BCB C and DD be a point on Γ\Gamma such that ADBCA D \perp B C. Let TT be a point such that BDCTB D C T is a parallelogram and QQ a point on the same side of BCB C as AA such that

BQM=BCAandCQM=CBA \angle B Q M=\angle B C A \quad \text{and} \quad \angle C Q M=\angle C B A

Let the line AOA O intersect Γ\Gamma at E,(EA)E,(E \neq A) and let the circumcircle of ETQ\triangle E T Q intersect Γ\Gamma at point XEX \neq E. Prove that the points A,MA, M, and XX are collinear.

Solution

Let XX^{\prime} be the symmetric point to QQ in line BCB C. Now since CBA=CQM=CXM\angle C B A=\angle C Q M=\angle C X^{\prime} M, BCA=BQM=BXM\angle B C A=\angle B Q M=\angle B X^{\prime} M, we have

BXC=BXM+CXM=CBA+BCA=180BAC \angle B X^{\prime} C=\angle B X^{\prime} M+\angle C X^{\prime} M=\angle C B A+\angle B C A=180^{\circ}-\angle B A C

we have that XΓX^{\prime} \in \Gamma. Now since AXB=ACB=MXB\angle A X^{\prime} B=\angle A C B=\angle M X^{\prime} B we have that A,M,XA, M, X^{\prime} are collinear. Note that since

DCB=DAB=90ABC=OAC=EAC \angle D C B=\angle D A B=90^{\circ}-\angle A B C=\angle O A C=\angle E A C

we get that DBCED B C E is an isosceles trapezoid.

!

Since BDCTB D C T is a parallelogram we have MT=MDM T=M D, with M,D,TM, D, T being collinear, BD=CTB D=C T, and since BDECB D E C is an isosceles trapezoid we have BD=CEB D=C E and ME=MDM E=M D. Since

BTC=BDC=BED,CE=BD=CT and ME=MT \angle B T C=\angle B D C=\angle B E D, \quad C E=B D=C T \quad \text { and } \quad M E=M T

we have that EE and TT are symmetric with respect to the line BCB C. Now since QQ and XX^{\prime} are symmetric with respect to the line BCB C as well, this means that QXETQ X^{\prime} E T is an isosceles trapezoid which means that Q,X,E,TQ, X^{\prime}, E, T are concyclic. Since XΓX^{\prime} \in \Gamma this means that XXX \equiv X^{\prime} and therefore A,M,XA, M, X are collinear.

Alternative solution. Denote by HH the orthocenter of ABC\triangle A B C. We use the following well known properties:
(i) Point DD is the symmetric point of HH with respect to BCB C. Indeed, if H1H_{1} is the symmetric point of HH with respect to BCB C then BH1C+BAC=180\angle B H_{1} C+\angle B A C=180^{\circ} and therefore H1DH_{1} \equiv D.

(ii) The symmetric point of HH with respect to MM is the point EE. Indeed, if H2H_{2} is the symmetric point of HH with respect to MM then BH2CHB H_{2} C H is parallelogram, BH2C+BAC=180\angle B H_{2} C+\angle B A C=180^{\circ} and since EBCHE B \| C H we have EBA=90\angle E B A=90^{\circ}.

Since DETHD E T H is a parallelogram and MH=MDM H=M D we have that DETHD E T H is a rectangle. Therefore MT=MEM T=M E and TEBCT E \perp B C implying that TT and EE are symmetric with respect to BCB C. Denote by QQ^{\prime} the symmetric point of QQ with respect to BCB C. Then QETQQ^{\prime} E T Q is isosceles trapezoid, so QQ^{\prime} is a point on the circumcircle of ETQ\triangle E T Q. Moreover BQC+BAC=180\angle B Q^{\prime} C+\angle B A C=180^{\circ} and we conclude that QΓQ^{\prime} \in \Gamma. Therefore QXQ^{\prime} \equiv X.

It remains to observe that CXM=CQM=CBA\angle C X M=\angle C Q M=\angle C B A and CXA=CBA\angle C X A=\angle C B A and we infer that X,MX, M and AA are collinear.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.