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42nd Balkan Mathematical Olympiad

geometry

Problem

Let be a convex quadrilateral such that . Points and are chosen such that , , and . Let lines and meet at and be the midpoint of segment . Prove that points lie on a circle.

problem


problem
Solution
Let be the midpoint of . Applying the formula for the length of the median on and , and using the fact that , we obtain . Proof. We use directed angles. Let be the projection of onto and be the midpoint of . Observe that and are the midpoints of , so . Since , we get that , so is the circumcenter of . Also observe that are concyclic (), so we can infer that

By projecting onto , we can similarly prove that , so . We also have and , meaning . This is a spiral similarity centered at sending to . It follows that is also the center of spiral similarity sending to .

Since and , the angle of rotation in the spiral similarity is . This means we also have , thus is the projection of onto , so . Moreover, the spiral similarity sends to , so . We can similarly prove that , so points lie on the circle with diameter and we are done.

Techniques

Spiral similarityAngle chasingTriangle centers: centroid, incenter, circumcenter, orthocenter, Euler line, nine-point circle