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Balkan Mathematical Olympiad

geometry

Problem

Let be an acute triangle with inscribed in a circle and let be an arbitrary point on its altitude . The circle with diameter , intersects the circle at points (different than ), the line at point and the line at point . Finally the line intersects at point . Prove that the quadrilateral is cyclic.

problem
Solution
From the orthogonal triangle we have: . From the inscribed quadrilateral we have: . Also (since is a diameter of the circle ). Hence we have: From equality (1) we conclude that the quadrilateral is cyclic and let be its circumcircle. Also the quadrilateral is cyclic, because . Let now be the circumcircle of the quadrilateral . We observe that: The line is the radical axis of the circles and . The line is the radical axis of the circles and . The line is the radical axis of the circles and . Hence the lines , and , are concurrent, say at (radical center of the three circles , and ). Therefore we have Also from circle we have the equality: Finally from (2) and (3) we get the equality from which we conclude that the quadrilateral is cyclic.

Techniques

Radical axis theoremCyclic quadrilateralsAngle chasing