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SAUDI ARABIAN MATHEMATICAL COMPETITIONS

Saudi Arabia geometry

Problem

Let be an acute, non-isosceles triangle, , , are the altitudes with , , belonging to , , respectively. Respectively denote , , as the circumcircles of triangles , , . Suppose that is a circle that is internally tangent to \left(O_{1} ight), \left(O_{2} ight), \left(O_{3} ight). Prove that is tangent to the circumcircle of triangle .

problem
Solution
Let be the orthocenter of triangle .



We can see that . We consider the inversion with center and ratio as the function .

It is easy to see that so with being the 9-point circle (which also passes through , , ).

On the other hand, because , hence . After the inversion, the circles become a line passing through the images of , ; indeed, this line is or .

Similarly, we also have and . So the circle that is tangent to , , will become the incircle of triangle . But based on Feuerbach's theorem, the two circles , are tangent to each other.

Therefore, the circles and are also tangent to each other.

Techniques

Triangle centers: centroid, incenter, circumcenter, orthocenter, Euler line, nine-point circleInversionTangents