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China Team Selection Test

Geometry Difficulty 7.7 National Olympiad, round 2 Find the answer

Given a circle with radius 1 and 2 points C, D given on it. Given a constant l with 0<l≤20<l\le 2. Moving chord of the circle AB=l and ABCD is a non-degenerated convex quadrilateral. AC and BD intersects at P. Find the loci of the circumcenters of triangles ABP and BCP.

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Given a circle with radius 1 and two points C C and D D on it, and a constant l l with 0<l≤2 0 < l \leq 2 . A moving chord AB AB of the circle has length l l , and ABCD ABCD forms a non-degenerate convex quadrilateral. Let AC AC and BD BD intersect at P P . We aim to find the loci of the circumcenters of triangles ABP ABP and BCP BCP .

Let T T be the circumcenter of △BCP \triangle BCP . The angles ∠TBC \angle TBC and ∠TCB \angle TCB are fixed. Let X X be the second intersection of line TB‾ \overline{TB} with the circle, distinct from B B . Since C C and ∠XBC \angle XBC are fixed, X X is fixed. Consequently, the angle ∠XTC=2∠XBC \angle XTC = 2 \angle XBC is fixed. Therefore, T T lies on a circle passing through X X and C C .

The loci of the circumcenters of triangles ABP ABP and BCP BCP are circles passing through fixed points determined by the configuration of the quadrilateral ABCD ABCD .

The answer is: circles\boxed{\text{circles}} passing through fixed points}}.

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