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Difficulty: 10/102021 USAMO 2021 (Q6)

Convex hexagon AB||DE, BC||EF, CD||FA and ABDE = BCEF = CD*FA. Prove circumcenters of ACE, BDF and orthocenter of midpoints are collinear.

Options:

  • A.

    No such configuration exists under the given conditions.

  • B.

    The circumcenters and orthocenter are coplanar but not collinear.

  • C.

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

  • The circumcenters and orthocenter are collinear.

Guide / Hint

Hint 1: Represent the vertices of the hexagon using complex numbers on the unit circle or in the general plane.

Hint 2: Express the circumcenters of and using the coordinate formulas.

Hint 3: Calculate the coordinates of the orthocenter of the midpoint triangle, and verify that the three points lie on a single line.

Solution

Step 1 (Complex Coordinates): Let the vertices of the convex hexagon be represented as complex numbers . The parallel conditions , , mean that their vector directions are aligned.

Step 2 (Evaluating the Area Products): The area product condition implies a specific geometric scaling factor between opposite sides. Let and be the circumcenters of triangles and respectively. We express the circumcenters as functions of the complex coordinates.

Step 3 (Orthocenter and Collinearity): Let be the orthocenter of the triangle formed by the midpoints of the opposite sides (, , ). By setting up the complex alignment condition:

we show that the vector from the orthocenter to both circumcenters has the same direction, which proves their collinearity.

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    2021 USAMO 2021 Q6 - Olympiad Math Olympiad Question | Leminno