Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 7.1 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it

Let A,B,CA, B, C and PP be four points in the plane such that ABCABC is an equilateral triangle and AP<BP<CPAP < BP < CP. We assume that the only given lengths AP,BPAP, BP, and CPCP allow us to uniquely determine the length ABAB.
Prove that PP lies on the circumcircle of ABCABC.

Solution

Let Γa,Γb\Gamma_{\mathrm{a}}, \Gamma_{\mathrm{b}} and Γc\Gamma_{\mathrm{c}} be the circles centered at PP and passing through AA, BB, and CC respectively. Let CC^{\bullet} be the symmetric point of CC with respect to (AP)(AP). Note that CC^{\bullet} is the only point on Γc\Gamma_{\mathrm{c}}, other than CC itself, such that AC=ACA C = A C^{\bullet}.
Now, let rr be the rotation centered at A\mathcal{A} with an angle of 6060^{\circ} in the clockwise direction. Without loss of generality, we assume that C=r(B)C = r(B).
Then, for any point BB^{\prime} on Γb\Gamma_{b}, we associate the point C=r(B)C^{\prime} = r(B^{\prime}). The triangle ABCA B^{\prime} C^{\prime} is equilateral, and the hypothesis of the problem states that for any BB^{\prime}, the point CC^{\prime} can only belong to Γc\Gamma_{c} if it is equal to CC or CC^{\bullet}.
As BB^{\prime} describes Γb\Gamma_{b}, the point CC^{\prime} describes the circle r(Γb)r(\Gamma_{b}), centered at r(P)r(P) and with radius PBPB. This circle cannot contain both points CC and CC^{\bullet}, since then its center would lie on the perpendicular bisector (AP)(AP) of [C][C^{\bullet}], which is not the case for r(P)r(P).
Since r(Γb)r(\Gamma_{b}) already contains CC, it cannot contain any other point of Γc\Gamma_{c}. Given that r(P)A=PA<PBr(P)A = PA < PB, we know that AA is located inside r(Γb)r(\Gamma_{b}), which is therefore internally tangent to Γc\Gamma_{c} at the point CC.
Since PB=r(P)C<PCPB = r(P)C < PC, it follows that the points C,r(P)C, r(P), and PP are collinear in that order. This implies that PC=r(P)C+r(P)P=PB+PAPC = r(P)C + r(P)P = PB + PA, or equivalently, CPAB=BPAC+APBCCP \cdot AB = BP \cdot AC + AP \cdot BC. The Ptolemy's theorem then indicates that the points A,B,CA, B, C, and PP are concyclic, which concludes the proof.
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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.