Olympiad Maths Prep

Track / Stage 5 / 208 of 400 #808 of 2000

Problem 808

AIME late
Geometry Difficulty 5.5 Prove it

Example 2 Given a non-isosceles ABC\triangle ABC with the incircle I\odot I touching sides BCBC, CACA, and ABAB at points DD, EE, and FF respectively. The line through point EE perpendicular to BIBI intersects I\odot I again at point KK, and the line through point FF perpendicular to CICI intersects I\odot I again at point LL. Let JJ be the midpoint of segment KLKL. Prove:
(1) Points DD, II, and JJ are collinear;
(2) If BB and CC are fixed points, and point AA satisfies ABAC=k\frac{AB}{AC} = k (where kk is a given positive constant), and points AA, BB, and CC are not collinear, the lines IEIE and IFIF intersect I\odot I again at points MM and NN respectively, and the line MNMN intersects IBIB and ICIC at points PP and QQ respectively, then the perpendicular bisector of segment PQPQ always passes through a fixed point. [2]{ }^{[2]}
(2013, Vietnam Mathematical Olympiad)

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

Proof (1) As shown in Figure 4.
Since points E,KE, K are symmetric with respect to line BIBI, and points F,DF, D are also symmetric with respect to line BIBI, we have DK=FEDK = FE.
Similarly, DL=EFDL = EF.
Thus, DK=DLDK = DL.
Since side BCBC is tangent to I\odot I at point DD, then LKBCLK \parallel BC.
Since IDBCID \perp BC, we have IDLKID \perp LK.
Therefore, IDID passes through the midpoint JJ of chord KLKL of I\odot I, i.e., points DD, II, and JJ are collinear.
(2) Let lines BIBI, CICI intersect EFEF at points XX, YY respectively.

By Property 1, points BB, CC, XX, YY are concyclic, denoted as O\odot O. Then OO is the midpoint of BCBC. Hence, OO is a fixed point.
Let the perpendicular bisector of XYXY be ll. Then line ll passes through the fixed point OO.
Let AIAI intersect side BCBC at point TT.
By the Angle Bisector Theorem, we have
BTTC=ABAC=k. \frac{BT}{TC} = \frac{AB}{AC} = k.

Thus, TT is a fixed point.
Consider the point reflection transformation with II as the center, the corresponding points of EE, FF are MM, NN respectively, and the corresponding lines of BIBI, CICI are still BIBI, CICI. Then the corresponding points of XX, YY are PP, QQ respectively.

Let the perpendicular bisector of segment PQPQ be ll'. Then the corresponding line of line ll is ll'.

Since lines AIAI, ll are both perpendicular to EFEF, we have AIllAI \parallel l \parallel l', and line AIAI is equidistant from lines ll, ll'.

Let line ll' intersect side BCBC at point OO'. Then TT is the midpoint of segment OOOO'. Thus, OO' is a fixed point, i.e., the perpendicular bisector ll' of segment PQPQ always passes through the fixed point OO'.

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic, difficulty and ordering added by this site.