Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 5 / 324 of 400 #924 of 1964

Problem 924

AIME late
Geometry Difficulty 5.8 Prove it

Prove that the center of the circumcircle O, the centroid G, and the orthocenter H of any triangle ABC are collinear and that OG=12GHO G=\frac{1}{2} \mathrm{GH}.

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.

Official solution

We call A1,B1A_{1}, B_{1}, and C1C_{1} the feet of the medians from A,BA, B, and respectively CC. We call hh the homothety with center GG and ratio 12-\frac{1}{2}. We call O1O_{-1} the point h1(O)h^{-1}(O), as shown in Figure 1, and we see that it suffices to show O1=H\mathrm{O}_{-1}=\mathrm{H}. One of the properties of homotheties shows that

h(A)h(O1)AO1 h(A) h\left(O_{-1}\right) \| A O_{-1}

However, it is known that GG is located one-third of the way from A1A_{1} and two-thirds of the way from AA, so A1=h(A)A_{1}=h(A). Thus, we have:

A1OAO1 \mathrm{A}_{1} \mathrm{O} \| \mathrm{AO}_{-1}

Since A1OA_{1} O is the perpendicular bisector of the segment BC,A10BCB C, A_{1} 0 \perp B C and, consequently, A1BCA_{-1} \perp B C. Similarly, BO1AC\mathrm{BO}_{-1} \perp A C, so O1\mathrm{O}_{-1} lies on two altitudes of the triangle. Thus O1=H\mathrm{O}_{-1}=\mathrm{H}.

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