Competition problem — Geometry — Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 3.9 AMC 10/12 Prove it

Let $\triangle ABC$ be an acute triangle, and let $I_B, I_C,$ and $O$ denote its $B$ -excenter, $C$ -excenter, and circumcenter, respectively. Points $E$ and $Y$ are selected on $\overline{AC}$ such that $\angle ABY = \angle CBY$ and $\overline{BE}\perp\overline{AC}.$ Similarly, points $F$ and $Z$ are selected on $\overline{AB}$ such that $\angle ACZ = \angle BCZ$ and $\overline{CF}\perp\overline{AB}.$
Lines $I_B F$ and $I_C E$ meet at $P.$ Prove that $\overline{PO}$ and $\overline{YZ}$ are perpendicular.

Solution

This problem can be proved in the following two steps.
1. Let $I_A$ be the $A$ -excenter, then $I_A,O,$ and $P$ are colinear. This can be proved by the Trigonometric Form of Ceva's Theorem for $\triangle I_AI_BI_C.$
2. Show that $I_AY^2-I_AZ^2=OY^2-OZ^2,$ which implies $\overline{OI_A}\perp\overline{YZ}.$ This can be proved by multiple applications of the Pythagorean Thm.

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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.