Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /283 of 520

Geometry Difficulty 6.5 National olympiad Prove it

Points A,V1,V2,B,U2,U1A, V_{1}, V_{2}, B, U_{2}, U_{1} lie fixed on a circle Γ\Gamma, in that order, and such that BU2>AU1>BV2>AV1B U_{2}>A U_{1}>B V_{2}>A V_{1}. Let XX be a variable point on the arcV1V2\operatorname{arc} V_{1} V_{2} of Γ\Gamma not containing AA or BB. Line XAX A meets line U1V1U_{1} V_{1} at CC, while line XBX B meets line U2V2U_{2} V_{2} at DD. Prove there exists a fixed point KK, independent of XX, such that the power of KK to the circumcircle of XCD\triangle X C D is constant.

Solution

For brevity, we let i\ell_{i} denote line UiViU_{i} V_{i} for i=1,2i=1,2. We first give an explicit description of the fixed point KK. Let EE and FF be points on Γ\Gamma such that AE1\overline{A E} \| \ell_{1} and BF2\overline{B F} \| \ell_{2}. The problem conditions imply that EE lies between U1U_{1} and AA while FF lies between U2U_{2} and BB. Then we let
K=AFBE K=\overline{A F} \cap \overline{B E}
This point exists because AEFBA E F B are the vertices of a convex quadrilateral. Remark (How to identify the fixed point). If we drop the condition that XX lies on the arc, then the choice above is motivated by choosing X{E,F}X \in\{E, F\}. Essentially, when one chooses XEX \rightarrow E, the point CC approaches an infinity point. So in this degenerate case, the only points whose power is finite to (XCD)(X C D) are bounded are those on line BEB E. The same logic shows that KK must lie on line AFA F. Therefore, if the problem is going to work, the fixed point must be exactly AFBE\overline{A F} \cap \overline{B E}.

【First approach by Vincent Huang. We need the following claim: Claim - Suppose distinct lines ACA C and BDB D meet at XX. Then for any point KK
pow(K,XAB)+pow(K,XCD)=pow(K,XAD)+pow(K,XBC) \operatorname{pow}(K, X A B)+\operatorname{pow}(K, X C D)=\operatorname{pow}(K, X A D)+\operatorname{pow}(K, X B C)
Construct the points P=1BEP=\ell_{1} \cap \overline{B E} and Q=2AFQ=\ell_{2} \cap \overline{A F}, which do not depend on XX. Claim - Quadrilaterals BPCXB P C X and AQDXA Q D X are cyclic. !
Now, for the particular KK we choose, we have
pow(K,XCD)=pow(K,XAD)+pow(K,XBC)pow(K,XAB)=KAKQ+KBKPpow(K,Γ). \begin{aligned} \operatorname{pow}(K, X C D) & =\operatorname{pow}(K, X A D)+\operatorname{pow}(K, X B C)-\operatorname{pow}(K, X A B) \\ & =K A \cdot K Q+K B \cdot K P-\operatorname{pow}(K, \Gamma) . \end{aligned}

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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