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Estonian Mathematical Olympiad

Estonia geometry

Problem

Acute triangle with has circumcircle . Let , , be the midpoints of sides , , correspondingly. Ray intersects at point () and the circumcircle of triangle at point (). On circle a point such that is chosen. The circumcircles of triangles and intersect at point on the shorter arc . Prove that circle and the circumcircle of triangle are tangent to each other.

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Solution
Let be the center of and be the intersection point of lines and . Since is a trapezoid and a cyclic quadrilateral, it is an isosceles trapezoid and the points and are symmetric with respect Fig. 47 Fig. 48

to line (Fig. 47). We have , whereas and are on different sides of line , so point is on the circumcircle of triangle .

Since is the point of intersection of the perpendicular bisectors of triangle , we have (Fig. 48). Thus points and are on the circle with diameter and is on the circumcircle of triangle . Since triangle is acute, triangle is also acute (because ), hence its center is inside the triangle. So point is on the shorter arc . Thus the circumcircles of triangles and intersect at on the shorter arc , so .

Since is a diameter of the circumcircle of triangle and point is on the circle, and are perpendicular (Fig. 49). Therefore is a diameter of the circumcircle of triangle . Since is also a radius of circle , the line through perpendicular to line is tangent to both circles. Consequently circle and the circumcircle of triangle are tangent to each other.

Fig. 49

Techniques

TangentsCyclic quadrilateralsTriangle centers: centroid, incenter, circumcenter, orthocenter, Euler line, nine-point circleAngle chasing