Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 5 / 262 of 400 #1342 of 2444

Problem 1342

AIME late
Geometry Difficulty 5.5 Prove it Saudi Arabian Mathematical Competitions · Saudi Arabia

In triangle ABCA B C the circumcircle has radius RR and center OO and the incircle has radius rr and center IOI \neq O. Let GG denote the centroid of triangle ABCA B C. Prove that IGBCI G \perp B C if and only if AB=ACA B=A C or AB+AC=3BCA B+A C=3 B C.

This one wants a proof. Work it on paper, then read the official solution and mark yourself. Be honest about it: the record is only any use to you if it is.

Next problem →

Official solution

Let α=BC\alpha = B C, β=CA\beta = C A, γ=AB\gamma = A B. Without loss of generality we may assume that βγ\beta \geq \gamma. Let MM be the midpoint of BCB C, and let AA', II', and GG' be the orthogonal projections of AA, II and GG on MBM B.

Figure 1

We have
MI=MBBI=α2(sβ)=βγ2, M I' = M B - B I' = \frac{\alpha}{2} - (s - \beta) = \frac{\beta - \gamma}{2},
and because
γ2AB2=β2(αAB)2, \gamma^2 - A' B^2 = \beta^2 - (\alpha - A' B)^2,
we have
MG=13MA=13(MBAB)=13(α2α2β2+γ22α)=β2γ26α. \begin{aligned} & M G' = \frac{1}{3} M A' = \frac{1}{3}(M B - A' B) \\ = & \frac{1}{3}\left(\frac{\alpha}{2} - \frac{\alpha^2 - \beta^2 + \gamma^2}{2 \alpha}\right) = \frac{\beta^2 - \gamma^2}{6 \alpha} . \end{aligned}
We conclude that IGBCI G \perp B C is equivalent to II' coincides to GG', that is MI=MGM I' = M G'. The last relation is equivalent to
βγ2=β2γ26α \frac{\beta - \gamma}{2} = \frac{\beta^2 - \gamma^2}{6 \alpha}
or
(βγ)(β+γ3α)=0 (\beta - \gamma)(\beta + \gamma - 3 \alpha) = 0
and the conclusion follows.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty, ordering) added by this project.