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International Mathematical Olympiad

geometry

Problem

Let and be distinct points on circle , and let denote the tangent line to at . Point is the reflection of with respect to . A point is chosen on the smaller arc of so that the circumcircle of triangle intersects at two different points. Denote by the common point of and that is closest to . Line meets again at . Show that is tangent to .
Solution
In the circles and we have . On the other hand, since is tangent to , we get . So the triangles and are similar, and The last relation, together with , yields , hence . It follows that is tangent to at .

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Alternative solution.

As in Solution 1, we notice that , so we have . Let be the reflection of about ; then is a parallelogram with center , and hence the point lies on the line . From we get that the points are concyclic. This proves that , so is tangent to at .

Techniques

TangentsCyclic quadrilateralsAngle chasing