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Czech-Slovak-Polish Match

geometry

Problem

Let be the circumcircle of a given convex quadrilateral with the property that the half-lines and meet at a point for which holds. Let us denote by () the point of intersection of the circle with the perpendicular to at . Prove that the segments and are congruent if and only if the circumcenter of the triangle lies on .

problem


problem
Solution
Clearly is a diameter of . First we show that under the given conditions the vertex cannot lie in the half-plane . If the vertices , are points on the subarc of the arc (Fig. 1) then the angles and are obtuse, hence , which contradicts to the equality . If the vertices , are points on the subarc of the arc (Fig. 2) the angle is acute and , so the possible other meeting point of the half-line with the circumcircle of the triangle lies in the segment . Hence . This means that the equality cannot hold as (which is the power of with respect to the circumcircle of the triangle ).

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

We have shown that the vertex of the given quadrangle does not lie in the half-plane , hence if and only if is a rectangle, i.e. if and only if is a diameter of the circle , which is equivalent to the angle being right, which is in turn equivalent to the triangle being right with the right angle at , i.e. to the circumcenter of the triangle being the midpoint of .

Techniques

Cyclic quadrilateralsRadical axis theoremAngle chasing