Question 2 Let circle be the circumcircle of , and let point be an interior point of . The rays , , and intersect circle at points , , and , respectively. Let the points , , and be symmetric to points , , and with respect to the midpoints of sides , , and , respectively. Prove that the circumcircle of passes through the orthocenter of .
(Feng Zuming)
Solution
Proof 1: Let and be the circumcenter and orthocenter of , respectively, and let , , and be the midpoints of sides , , and , respectively. Choose three points , , and on circle such that , , and are diameters of circle (as shown in Figure 1).
Since , we have .
Similarly, .
Thus, we obtain quadrilateral and is the midpoint of .
Similarly, and are the midpoints of and , respectively.
Let the orthogonal projections of point on lines , , and be , , and , respectively. Then points , , and all lie on the circle with diameter , denoted as .
Since is both the midpoint of and , we have .
Also, in right triangles , and , we have . Therefore,
.
Similarly, , .
Thus, there exists a homothety that maps points to .
Since , , , and lie on circle , points , , , and are concyclic.
It is worth noting that a simpler proof can be obtained using vectors.
Proof 2: Let , , and be the midpoints of , , and , respectively. Choose point such that .
We will prove that (i.e., point lies on the perpendicular bisector of , and similarly, point lies on the perpendicular bisectors of and , thus, point is the center).
Notice that
(Using (Euler line) )
Similarly, .
Subtracting (2) from (1), we get
where point lies on such that .
Thus, .
But quadrilateral is a parallelogram, so
.
Therefore, .
Additionally, it is easy to find variations of this problem, such as changing "P is an interior point of " to "P is any point in the plane of ", and discussing how the conclusion changes; or changing "the symmetric points about the midpoints of sides , , and " to "the symmetric points about sides , , and ", or to "the symmetric points about the circumcenter of ", and conducting similar research.