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Geometry Difficulty 6.7 National olympiad Prove it

11. G5 (FRA) Let ABCA B C be a triangle, Ω\Omega its incircle and Ωa,Ωb,Ωc\Omega_{a}, \Omega_{b}, \Omega_{c} three circles orthogonal to Ω\Omega passing through BB and C,AC, A and CC, and AA and BB respectively. The circles Ωa,Ωb\Omega_{a}, \Omega_{b} meet again in CC^{\prime}; in the same way we obtain the points BB^{\prime} and AA^{\prime}. Prove that the radius of the circumcircle of ABCA^{\prime} B^{\prime} C^{\prime} is half the radius of Ω\Omega.

Solution

11. Let Ω(I,r)\Omega(I, r) be the incircle of ABC\triangle A B C. Let D,ED, E, and FF denote the points where Ω\Omega touches BC,ACB C, A C, and ABA B, respectively. Let P,QP, Q, and RR denote the midpoints of EF,DFE F, D F, and DED E respectively. We prove that Ωa\Omega_{a} passes through QQ and RR. Since IQDIDB\triangle I Q D \sim \triangle I D B and IRDIDC\triangle I R D \sim \triangle I D C, we obtain IQIB=IRIC=r2I Q \cdot I B=I R \cdot I C=r^{2}. We conclude that B,C,QB, C, Q, and RR lie on a single circle Γa\Gamma_{a}. Moreover, since the power of II with respect to Γa\Gamma_{a} is r2r^{2}, it follows for a tangent IXI X from II to Γa\Gamma_{a} that XX lies on Ω\Omega and hence Ω\Omega is perpendicular to Γa\Gamma_{a}. From the uniqueness of Ωa\Omega_{a} it follows that Ωa=Γa\Omega_{a}=\Gamma_{a}. Thus Ωa\Omega_{a} contains QQ and RR. Similarly Ωb\Omega_{b} contains PP and RR and Ωc\Omega_{c} contains PP and QQ. Hence, A=P,B=QA^{\prime}=P, B^{\prime}=Q and C=RC^{\prime}=R. Therefore the radius of the circumcircle of ABC\triangle A^{\prime} B^{\prime} C^{\prime} is half the radius of Ω\Omega.

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