Browse · MathNet
PrintCzech-Polish-Slovak Match
geometry
Problem
Let be an acute-angled triangle with . Tangent to its circumcircle at intersects the line at . Let be the centroid of and let meet again at . Suppose the line intersects the lines and at and , respectively. Prove that .
Solution
Let be the line parallel to that passes through and let . We denote the midpoint of by . We project the harmonic ratio from onto the line and learn that . Therefore by a well-known Apollonian property of harmonic ratios it suffices to prove .
Now let be the orthogonal projection of onto . The homothety centered at with factor maps the line onto the line and hence it maps to . Moreover, it leaves the line intact, so we just need to prove that it maps to . As lies on the circumcircle of , which is mapped to the nine-point circle of by the considered homothety, we just need to verify that lies on and that is not the “wrong” intersection point of and . But this other point is the midpoint of , which does not coincide with when . So our current claim is just that lies on . To verify it, we denote the orthogonal projection of to by and the midpoint of by . It is known that , and lie on . Further, the points and lie on the circle with diameter . Hence and we may conclude.
Now let be the orthogonal projection of onto . The homothety centered at with factor maps the line onto the line and hence it maps to . Moreover, it leaves the line intact, so we just need to prove that it maps to . As lies on the circumcircle of , which is mapped to the nine-point circle of by the considered homothety, we just need to verify that lies on and that is not the “wrong” intersection point of and . But this other point is the midpoint of , which does not coincide with when . So our current claim is just that lies on . To verify it, we denote the orthogonal projection of to by and the midpoint of by . It is known that , and lie on . Further, the points and lie on the circle with diameter . Hence and we may conclude.
Techniques
TangentsHomothetyPolar triangles, harmonic conjugatesTriangle centers: centroid, incenter, circumcenter, orthocenter, Euler line, nine-point circleAngle chasing