An ellipse with focus is given. Two perpendicular lines passing through meet the ellipse at four points. The tangents to the ellipse at these points form a quadrilateral circumscribed around the ellipse. Prove that this quadrilateral is inscribed into a conic with focus
Problem 1689
Official solution
1. Define the ellipse and points of intersection:
Let the ellipse be denoted by . Let be the points where the two perpendicular lines passing through the focus intersect the ellipse .
2. Define the intersections of tangents:
Let , , , and . These points are the intersections of the tangents to the ellipse at .
3. Intersection of diagonals with the ellipse:
Let intersect at points and , with closer to . Similarly, let intersect at points and , with closer to .
4. Collinearity using Pascal's Theorem:
Let . By applying Pascal's Theorem to the hexagon , we get that are collinear. Similarly, applying Pascal's Theorem to , we get that are collinear. Thus, are collinear.
5. Perpendicularity of diagonals:
Similarly, are collinear. Since is the focus of the ellipse, we have . Given that , it follows that .
6. Tangency and harmonic division:
Since the pole of is , the lines and are tangent to . This implies that . Additionally, since , we also have .
7. Collinearity of intersection points:
Denote , , , and . We observe that and are collinear.
8. Concurrent lines and harmonic division:
Since are concurrent at , we have:
9. Intersection points on the directrix:
Let , , and . We observe that lie on respectively. Furthermore, we have:
Thus, lie on the directrix of and are collinear.
10. Ellipse through intersection points:
Consider the ellipse passing through . Since , the pole of is the directrix. Similarly, since , the points lie on an ellipse. Similarly, lies on an ellipse. Since has the same pole in both cases, the points lie on an ellipse, denoted by .
11. Quadrilateral inscribed in a conic:
Consider the quadrilateral formed by the tangents from with . The vertex lies on the pole of and is collinear with . Similarly, lies on , and and are collinear with and and . This implies that , so , and is the focus of some in-ellipse of , which must be . Thus, has focus .