Six Concyclic Points II: What Is This About?
A Mathematical Droodle
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Explanation
Copyright © 1996-2009 Alexander Bogomolny
Explanation
The applet attempts to introduce the following problem:
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Consider a triangle ABC with incenter I, the incircle touching the sides BC, CA, AB at D, E, F respectively. Let Y (respectively Z) be the intersection of DF (respectively DE) and the line through A parallel to BC. If E' and F' are the midpoints of DZ and DY , then the six points A, E, F, I, E', F' are on the same circle.
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This is Problem 10710 from the American Mathematical Monthly (1999) proposed by Bogdan Suceava.
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A solution by Achilleas Sinefacopoulos was published next year (Am Math Monthly, 107, p. 572) and, as a theorem, it appeared in [Suceava and Yiu, p. 191].
Since BC||YZ, ∠EDC = ∠EZA. In addition, ∠EDC = ∠DEC (since CE and CD are two tangents to a circle from the same point) and ∠DEC = ∠AEZ (as vertical). We may conclude that ∠AEZ = ∠EZA so that ΔAEZ is isosceles: AE = AZ. Similarly, AF = AY. But AE and AF are the tangents from A to the incircle of ΔABC. Thus all four segments are equal:
In ΔEYZ, the median from E to YZ equals half of the latter, implying that the triangle is right: ∠YEZ = 90°. Similarly, ∠YFZ = 90°. This makes YE and ZF altitudes of ΔDYZ. Their intersection Ha is the orthocenter of that triangle. It follows that DHa is the third altitude and, since BC||YZ, DHa ⊥ BC. But D is the point of tangency of the incircle of ΔABC with BC, implying ID ⊥ BC and subsequently the collinearity of D, I, and Ha. Further, the right angle DEHa (with E and D on the incircle) needs to be subtended by a diameter, placing Ha on that circle and making Ha antipodal to D: DI = IHa.
Finally, the circle through F (the foot of an altitude), E (the foot of another altitude), and A (the midpoint of the third side) is necessarily the nine-point circle in ΔDYZ. Thus the circle passes through the midpoints E' and F' of the sides DZ and DY and the Euler point I on the altitude from D.
References
- B. Suceava, P. Yiu, The Feuerbach Point and Euler lines, Forum Geometricorum, Volume 6 (2006) 191–197.
Nine Point Circle
Copyright © 1996-2009 Alexander Bogomolny
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