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Thai Mathematical Olympiad

Thailand geometry

Problem

Let the incircle of a scalene triangle touch the sides , , at the points , , , respectively. Let be the midpoint of the arc that does not contain ( lies on the opposite side of ). If the common tangent of the incircles of triangles and (opposite to the common tangent with respect to the line joining their centers) intersects the lines and at the points and respectively, show that is an isosceles triangle.
Solution
Since is the midpoint of the arc and touches the incircle at , we see that Thus, bisects and similarly, bisects . Hence is the incenter of . By the same arguments, we can conclude that the incenters of and , denoted by and , are the midpoints of the arcs and , respectively. Since are the midpoints of the arcs , then , and intersect at the incenter of . Thus, . Since lies on , the common tangent of the circles and , the reflection of with respect to the line is . By the reflection, . Since and lie on the same side with respect to , must lie on . Therefore, is the incenter of . Now, it is left to show that the common tangent is parallel to ; this will implies that . This follows from the reflection of the tangent with respect to that, where is the intersection of and .

Techniques

TangentsTriangle centers: centroid, incenter, circumcenter, orthocenter, Euler line, nine-point circleAngle chasing