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Geometry Difficulty 7.6 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it

Let ABCA B C be a fixed acute-angled triangle. Consider some points EE and FF lying on the sides ACA C and ABA B, respectively, and let MM be the midpoint of EFE F. Let the perpendicular bisector of EFE F intersect the line BCB C at KK, and let the perpendicular bisector of MKM K intersect the lines ACA C and ABA B at SS and TT, respectively. We call the pair (E,F)(E, F) interesting, if the quadrilateral KSATK S A T is cyclic. Suppose that the pairs (E1,F1)\left(E_{1}, F_{1}\right) and (E2,F2)\left(E_{2}, F_{2}\right) are interesting. Prove that
E1E2AB=F1F2AC \frac{E_{1} E_{2}}{A B}=\frac{F_{1} F_{2}}{A C} (Iran)

Solution

For any interesting pair (E,F)(E, F), we will say that the corresponding triangle EFKE F K is also interesting. Let EFKE F K be an interesting triangle. Firstly, we prove that KEF=KFE=A\angle K E F=\angle K F E=\angle A, which also means that the circumcircle ω1\omega_{1} of the triangle AEFA E F is tangent to the lines KEK E and KFK F. Denote by ω\omega the circle passing through the points K,S,AK, S, A, and TT. Let the line AMA M intersect the line STS T and the circle ω\omega (for the second time) at NN and LL, respectively (see Figure 1). Since EFTSE F \| T S and MM is the midpoint of EF,NE F, N is the midpoint of STS T. Moreover, since KK and MM are symmetric to each other with respect to the line STS T, we have KNS=MNS=\angle K N S=\angle M N S= LNT\angle L N T. Thus the points KK and LL are symmetric to each other with respect to the perpendicular bisector of STS T. Therefore KLSTK L \| S T. Let GG be the point symmetric to KK with respect to NN. Then GG lies on the line EFE F, and we may assume that it lies on the ray MFM F. One has
KGE=KNS=SNM=KLA=180KSA \angle K G E=\angle K N S=\angle S N M=\angle K L A=180^{\circ}-\angle K S A
(if K=LK=L, then the angle KLAK L A is understood to be the angle between ALA L and the tangent to ω\omega at LL ). This means that the points K,G,EK, G, E, and SS are concyclic. Now, since KSGTK S G T is a parallelogram, we obtain KEF=KSG=180TKS=A\angle K E F=\angle K S G=180^{\circ}-\angle T K S=\angle A. Since KE=KFK E=K F, we also have KFE=KEF=A\angle K F E=\angle K E F=\angle A. After having proved this fact, one may finish the solution by different methods. ! Figure 1 ! Figure 2

First method. We have just proved that all interesting triangles are similar to each other. This allows us to use the following lemma.

Lemma. Let ABCA B C be an arbitrary triangle. Choose two points E1E_{1} and E2E_{2} on the side ACA C, two points F1F_{1} and F2F_{2} on the side ABA B, and two points K1K_{1} and K2K_{2} on the side BCB C, in a way that the triangles E1F1K1E_{1} F_{1} K_{1} and E2F2K2E_{2} F_{2} K_{2} are similar. Then the six circumcircles of the triangles AEiFiA E_{i} F_{i}, BFiKiB F_{i} K_{i}, and CEiKi(i=1,2)C E_{i} K_{i}(i=1,2) meet at a common point ZZ. Moreover, ZZ is the centre of the spiral similarity that takes the triangle E1F1K1E_{1} F_{1} K_{1} to the triangle E2F2K2E_{2} F_{2} K_{2}. Proof. Firstly, notice that for each i=1,2i=1,2, the circumcircles of the triangles AEiFi,BFiKiA E_{i} F_{i}, B F_{i} K_{i}, and CKiEiC K_{i} E_{i} have a common point ZiZ_{i} by Miquel's theorem. Moreover, we have \Varangle(ZiFi,ZiEi)=\Varangle(AB,CA),\Varangle(ZiKi,ZiFi)=\Varangle(BC,AB),\Varangle(ZiEi,ZiKi)=\Varangle(CA,BC)\Varangle\left(Z_{i} F_{i}, Z_{i} E_{i}\right)=\Varangle(A B, C A), \quad \Varangle\left(Z_{i} K_{i}, Z_{i} F_{i}\right)=\Varangle(B C, A B), \quad \Varangle\left(Z_{i} E_{i}, Z_{i} K_{i}\right)=\Varangle(C A, B C). This yields that the points Z1Z_{1} and Z2Z_{2} correspond to each other in similar triangles E1F1K1E_{1} F_{1} K_{1} and E2F2K2E_{2} F_{2} K_{2}. Thus, if they coincide, then this common point is indeed the desired centre of a spiral similarity. Finally, in order to show that Z1=Z2Z_{1}=Z_{2}, one may notice that \Varangle(AB,AZ1)=\Varangle(E1F1,E1Z1)=\Varangle\left(A B, A Z_{1}\right)=\Varangle\left(E_{1} F_{1}, E_{1} Z_{1}\right)= \Varangle(E2F2,E2Z2)=\Varangle(AB,AZ2)\Varangle\left(E_{2} F_{2}, E_{2} Z_{2}\right)=\Varangle\left(A B, A Z_{2}\right) (see Figure 2). Similarly, one has \Varangle(BC,BZ1)=\Varangle(BC,BZ2)\Varangle\left(B C, B Z_{1}\right)=\Varangle\left(B C, B Z_{2}\right) and \Varangle(CA,CZ1)=\Varangle(CA,CZ2)\Varangle\left(C A, C Z_{1}\right)=\Varangle\left(C A, C Z_{2}\right). This yields Z1=Z2Z_{1}=Z_{2}.

Now, let PP and QQ be the feet of the perpendiculars from BB and CC onto ACA C and ABA B, respectively, and let RR be the midpoint of BCB C (see Figure 3). Then RR is the circumcentre of the cyclic quadrilateral BCPQB C P Q. Thus we obtain APQ=B\angle A P Q=\angle B and RPC=C\angle R P C=\angle C, which yields QPR=A\angle Q P R=\angle A. Similarly, we show that PQR=A\angle P Q R=\angle A. Thus, all interesting triangles are similar to the triangle PQRP Q R. ! Figure 3 ! Figure 4

Denote now by ZZ the common point of the circumcircles of APQ,BQRA P Q, B Q R, and CPRC P R. Let $E_{

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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.