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Geometry Difficulty 8.0 National olympiad, round 2 Find the answer

Given circle OO with radius RR, the inscribed triangle ABCABC is an acute scalene triangle, where ABAB is the largest side. AHA,BHB,CHCAH_A, BH_B,CH_C are heights on BC,CA,ABBC,CA,AB. Let DD be the symmetric point of HAH_A with respect to HBHCH_BH_C, EE be the symmetric point of HBH_B with respect to HAHCH_AH_C. PP is the intersection of AD,BEAD,BE, HH is the orthocentre of ABC\triangle ABC. Prove: OPOHOP\cdot OH is fixed, and find this value in terms of RR.

(Edited)

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

Given a circle O O with radius R R , and an inscribed acute scalene triangle ABC ABC where AB AB is the largest side, let AHA,BHB,CHC AH_A, BH_B, CH_C be the altitudes from A,B,C A, B, C to BC,CA,AB BC, CA, AB respectively. Let D D be the symmetric point of HA H_A with respect to HBHC H_BH_C , and E E be the symmetric point of HB H_B with respect to HAHC H_AH_C . Let P P be the intersection of AD AD and BE BE , and H H be the orthocenter of ABC \triangle ABC . We aim to prove that OPOH OP \cdot OH is fixed and find this value in terms of R R .

To solve this, we use complex numbers and the properties of the orthocenter and the circumcircle. Let the circumcircle of ABC \triangle ABC be the unit circle in the complex plane. The orthocenter H H of ABC \triangle ABC can be represented as h=a+b+c h = a + b + c , where a,b,c a, b, c are the complex numbers corresponding to the vertices A,B,C A, B, C respectively.

The feet of the altitudes HA,HB,HC H_A, H_B, H_C can be expressed as:
ha=12(a+b+cbca), h_a = \frac{1}{2} \left( a + b + c - \frac{bc}{a} \right),
and similarly for hb h_b and hc h_c .

The point P P , which is the pole of H H with respect to the circumcircle, is given by:
p=1h=abcab+bc+ac. p = \frac{1}{\overline{h}} = \frac{abc}{ab + bc + ac}.

Next, we compute the symmetric points D D and E E . Let X X be the foot of the perpendicular from HA H_A to HBHC H_BH_C . Solving for X X using the properties of perpendiculars in the complex plane, we find:
2x=ha+hb+a2(hbha), 2x = h_a + h_b + a^2 (\overline{h_b - h_a}),
which simplifies to:
d=2xha=12(a+b+cacbabc+a3bc). d = 2x - h_a = \frac{1}{2} \left( a + b + c - \frac{ac}{b} - \frac{ab}{c} + \frac{a^3}{bc} \right).

We then show that D,A, D, A, and P P are collinear by computing:
dada=apap=a3(a+b+c)ab+ac+bc. \frac{d - a}{\overline{d - a}} = \frac{a - p}{\overline{a - p}} = \frac{a^3 (a + b + c)}{ab + ac + bc}.

Finally, since P P is the pole of H H with respect to the circumcircle, the product OPOH OP \cdot OH is given by:
OPOH=R2. OP \cdot OH = R^2.

Thus, the value of OPOH OP \cdot OH is fixed and equals R2 R^2 .

The answer is: \boxed{R^2}.

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Source: Omni-MATH, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.