Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /258 of 520

Geometry Difficulty 6.9 National olympiad Prove it

Two circles Γ1\Gamma_1 and Γ2\Gamma_2 intersect at points M,NM,N. A line \ell is tangent to Γ1,Γ2\Gamma_1 ,\Gamma_2 at AA and BB, respectively. The lines passing through AA and BB and perpendicular to \ell intersects MNMN at CC and DD respectively. Prove that ABCDABCD is a parallelogram.

Solution

1. **Identify the Midpoint E E of AB AB :**
Let E E be the midpoint of AB AB . Since \ell is tangent to both circles Γ1 \Gamma_1 and Γ2 \Gamma_2 at points A A and B B respectively, and E E is the midpoint, we have:
EA=EB |EA| = |EB|

2. Radical Axis and Perpendicular Lines:
The radical axis of two intersecting circles is the line that is perpendicular to the line joining their centers and passes through the points of intersection. Since E E is equidistant from A A and B B , it lies on the radical axis of Γ1 \Gamma_1 and Γ2 \Gamma_2 . This radical axis is the line CD CD .

3. Angles and Parallel Lines:
Since AC AC and BD BD are perpendicular to \ell , they are parallel to each other:
ACBD AC \parallel BD
This implies that the angles formed by these lines with the line CD CD are equal:
ACE=BDE \angle ACE = \angle BDE

4. Congruent Triangles:
Consider the triangles ACE \triangle ACE and BDE \triangle BDE . Since E E is the midpoint of AB AB and ACBD AC \parallel BD , we have:
CEA=DEB \angle CEA = \angle DEB
Additionally, since ACBD AC \parallel BD , the corresponding angles are equal:
ACE=BDE \angle ACE = \angle BDE
Therefore, the triangles ACE \triangle ACE and BDE \triangle BDE are congruent by the Angle-Angle (AA) criterion.

5. **Midpoint of CD CD :**
Since ACE \triangle ACE and BDE \triangle BDE are congruent, E E is also the midpoint of CD CD . This implies that AB AB and CD CD bisect each other at E E .

6. Conclusion:
Since ABCD AB \parallel CD and ACBD AC \parallel BD , and both pairs of opposite sides are equal in length, ABCD ABCD is a parallelogram.

\blacksquare

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.