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Brazil

Brazil geometry

Problem

Let be an acute triangle and its Fermat point, that is, the interior point of such that . For each one of triangles , and , draw its Euler line, that is, the line connecting its circumcenter and its centroid. Prove that these three lines pass through one common point.

problem
Solution
First we'll prove the following well-known Lemma. Let , and be the equilateral triangles constructed externally to triangle . The lines , and concur on the Fermat point of . Proof. Let be the intersection point of and . Since triangles and are congruent, . So the quadrilateral is cyclic, and thus and . Hence , which proves that is the Fermat point of triangle . Analogously, and pass through the same point , and the lemma is proved.

Now, let , and be the centers of these equilateral triangles (and also the circumcenters of triangles , and , respectively); , and are the centroids of , and , respectively. It is immediate that the Euler lines , , are parallel to , and , respectively.

Now consider the homothety with center and ratio , which transforms , and into the midpoints of , and , respectively. This homothety also transforms the Euler lines of , and into the lines , and , parallel to , and and passing through the midpoints of , and , respectively. Hence these Euler lines are concurrent iff , and are.

Finally, consider the homothety with center (centroid of ) and ratio . The midpoints of , and are transformed into the vertices , and , respectively, so , and are transformed into , and , respectively. Since the latter are concurrent at , it follows that , and are too, and we are done.

Techniques

Napoleon and Fermat pointsHomothetyTriangle centers: centroid, incenter, circumcenter, orthocenter, Euler line, nine-point circleCyclic quadrilateralsAngle chasing