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Geometry Difficulty 7.0 National olympiad Prove it

Let ABC\triangle A B C be an acute triangle such that AB<AC|A B|<|A C| with circumcircle Γ\Gamma and center OO. The points D,ED, E, and FF are constructed as the feet of the altitudes from A,BA, B, and CC respectively. The intersection of the tangents to Γ\Gamma at BB and CC is denoted as PP. The line through PP perpendicular to EFE F intersects the line ADA D at point QQ. Let RR be the orthogonal projection of AA onto EFE F.

Prove that the lines DRD R and OQO Q are parallel.
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Solution

Since OO is the center of the circumscribed circle, we calculate that

BAO=12(180AOB)=90ACB=90EFA=FAR, \begin{aligned} \angle B A O & =\frac{1}{2}\left(180^{\circ}-\angle A O B\right) \\ & =90^{\circ}-\angle A C B \\ & =90^{\circ}-\angle E F A \\ & =\angle F A R, \end{aligned}

where we also used the fact that BCEFB C E F is a cyclic quadrilateral due to Thales, and that RR is the orthogonal projection of AA onto EFE F. From this, we conclude that A,RA, R, and OO are collinear. To show that DRD R and OQO Q are parallel, it is sufficient to show that ARAD=AOAQ\frac{|A R|}{|A D|}=\frac{|A O|}{|A Q|}.

Due to the cyclic quadrilateral BCEFB C E F, we have that AEFABC\triangle A E F \sim \triangle A B C. Under this similarity, the altitude ARA R maps to the altitude ADA D. (Alternatively, one can simply show that AREADB\triangle A R E \sim \triangle A D B.) From this, it follows that ARAD=AEAB\frac{|A R|}{|A D|}=\frac{|A E|}{|A B|}.

On the other hand, we know that

POB=12COB=CAB=EAB \angle P O B=\frac{1}{2} \angle C O B=\angle C A B=\angle E A B

due to symmetry and the fact that OO is the center of the circumscribed circle. Also, OBP=90=AEB\angle O B P=90^{\circ}=\angle A E B. Thus, we find that POBBAE\triangle P O B \sim \triangle B A E, which implies that AEAB=BOOP\frac{|A E|}{|A B|}=\frac{|B O|}{|O P|}.

Furthermore, the lines AOA O and PQP Q are parallel because they are both perpendicular to EFE F, and the lines AQA Q and OPO P are parallel because they are both perpendicular to BCB C. This means that AOPQA O P Q is a parallelogram, and in particular, that OP=AQ|O P|=|A Q|. We also know that BO=AO|B O|=|A O|. Therefore, we conclude that

ARAD=AEAB=BOOP=AOAQ \frac{|A R|}{|A D|}=\frac{|A E|}{|A B|}=\frac{|B O|}{|O P|}=\frac{|A O|}{|A Q|}

which implies that DRD R and OQO Q are parallel.

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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.