Olympiad Maths Prep

Track / Stage 6 / 89 of 400 #1089 of 2000

Problem 1089

National olympiad, first round
Geometry Difficulty 6.1 Prove it Czech-Polish-Slovak Match · Czech-Polish-Slovak Mathematical Match

Let ABCABC be an acute-angled triangle with AB<ACAB < AC. Tangent to its circumcircle Ω\Omega at AA intersects the line BCBC at DD. Let GG be the centroid of ABCABC and let AGAG meet Ω\Omega again at HAH \neq A. Suppose the line DGDG intersects the lines ABAB and ACAC at EE and FF, respectively. Prove that EHG=GHF\angle EHG = \angle GHF.

This one wants a proof. Work it on paper, read the official solution, then mark yourself honestly — the ladder only means something if the record is true.

Official solution

Let pp be the line parallel to BCBC that passes through AA and let P=pDGP = p \cap DG. We denote the midpoint of BCBC by TT.
We project the harmonic ratio (BTC)=1(BTC_\infty) = -1 from AA onto the line DGDG and learn that (EGFP)=1(EGFP) = -1. Therefore by a well-known Apollonian property of harmonic ratios it suffices to prove PHA=90\angle PHA = 90^\circ.

Now let QQ be the orthogonal projection of DD onto AHAH. The homothety centered at GG with factor 12-\frac{1}{2} maps the line pp onto the line BCBC and hence it maps PP to DD. Moreover, it leaves the line AHAH intact, so we just need to prove that it maps HH to QQ.
As HH lies on the circumcircle of ABCABC, which is mapped to the nine-point circle ω\omega of ABCABC by the considered homothety, we just need to verify that QQ lies on ω\omega and that QQ is not the “wrong” intersection point of ω\omega and AHAH. But this other point is the midpoint of BCBC, which does not coincide with QQ when ABACAB \neq AC.
So our current claim is just that QQ lies on ω\omega. To verify it, we denote the orthogonal projection of AA to BCBC by RR and the midpoint of ABAB by SS. It is known that R,SR, S, and TT lie on ω\omega. Further, the points QQ and RR lie on the circle with diameter ADAD. Hence
RQT=BDA=βBAD=βγ=α(1802β)=BSTBSR=RST \angle RQT = \angle BDA = \beta - \angle BAD = \beta - \gamma = \alpha - (180^\circ - 2\beta) = \angle BST - \angle BSR = \angle RST
and we may conclude. \square

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