Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2019

Geometry Difficulty 7.9 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Turkey

In a right triangle ABCABC with ∠ACB=90∘\angle ACB = 90^\circ let DD be the foot of the altitude from CC. Let EE and FF be the reflections of DD with respect to ACAC and BCBC, respectively. Let O1O_1 and O2O_2 be the circumcenters of the triangles ECBECB and FCAFCA, respectively. Prove that
2∣O1O2∣=∣AB∣. 2|O_1O_2| = |AB|.

Solution

Let ∠ABC=α\angle ABC = \alpha and ∠BAC=90−α=β\angle BAC = 90 - \alpha = \beta. ⇒∠BCD=∠EAC=β\Rightarrow \angle BCD = \angle EAC = \beta and ∠ACD=∠ACE=α\angle ACD = \angle ACE = \alpha. Let KK be the second intersection point of the circumcircle of the triangle ECBECB and the line ABAB. ⇒∠AKE=∠KEA=β\Rightarrow \angle AKE = \angle KEA = \beta and hence AKEAKE is an isosceles triangle.

Figure 1

Note that O1O_1 is the intersection point of the perpendicular bisectors of the line segments [EK][EK] and [BC][BC]. Let OO and LL be the midpoints of [AB][AB] and [BC][BC], respectively. Then, LL, OO

and O1O_1 are collinear. By angle chasing we see that AO1LCAO_1LC is a rectangle. Moreover, since OLB≅OO1AOLB \cong OO_1A we have ∣OL∣=∣OO1∣|OL| = |OO_1|. Consequently, we obtain OO1∥ACOO_1 \parallel AC and ∣OO1∣=∣AC∣/2|OO_1| = |AC|/2. Similarly, one can get OO2∥BCOO_2 \parallel BC and ∣OO2∣=∣BC∣/2|OO_2| = |BC|/2. Therefore, we see that ABC∼O1O2OABC \sim O_1O_2O and hence ∣O1O2∣=∣AB∣/2|O_1O_2| = |AB|/2.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.