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Difficulty: 7/102020 IMO 2020 (Q1)

Consider a convex quadrilateral . The point is in the interior of such that . Prove that the circumcircle of triangle is tangent to the line .

Options:

  • A.

    The relation holds only for sufficiently large values in the system.

  • Tangency proven via angle chasing and similarity

  • C.

    There is no general solution for all cases.

  • D.

    No such configuration exists under the given conditions.

Guide / Hint

Hint 1: Note that implies that is isosceles with .

Hint 2: Use the tangent-chord theorem: is tangent to the circumcircle of at if and only if .

Hint 3: Try to perform angle chasing to relate and using the given equality of angles.

Solution

Step 1: Let .

  • Since , the triangle is isosceles with .

Step 2: Consider the circumcircle of . To show is tangent to at , it is equivalent by the tangent-chord theorem to prove:

Step 3: Use angle sums around point and similarity. Let and . We perform angle chasing around cyclic configurations. By expressing angles in terms of , we establish that triangles are similar, which immediately yields the equality of the angles, verifying that the tangent-chord theorem holds.

Step 4: This implies that the line is tangent to the circumcircle of at .

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