The diagonals of a convex quadrilateral divide it into four triangles. Prove that the nine point centers of these four triangles either lie on one straight line, or are the vertices of a parallelogram.
Problem
Source: Russian TST 2017, Day 6 P1 (Groups A & B)
Tags: geometry, Nine point center
starchan
03.04.2023 07:19
Is it not too easy, even for a P1?
Let the quadrilateral be $ABCD$ and suppose $X$ is the point where its diagonals meet. First of all, observe that the centroids of the four triangles form a parallelogram, by vectors or complex numbers say. Now, because for any triangle, the ninepoint center is a linear combination of the centroid and orthocentre with fixed ratio, it suffices to show that the orthocentres of the four triangles form a parallelogram. Suppose these orthocentres are $H_A$ for $XAB$, $H_B$ for $XBC$ and define $H_C, H_D$ analogously. Now just observe that $H_A, H_B$ both lie on the $B$-altitude in $\triangle BAC$. In particular, $H_AH_B \perp AC$ and similarily $H_CH_D \perp AC$. This yields that $H_A H_B \parallel H_C H_D$ and we also similarily have $H_B H_C \parallel H_A H_D$ which shows that $H_A H_B H_C H_D$ is a parallelogram, as desired. This concludes the proof.
IAmTheHazard
09.09.2023 02:39
oops Let the quadrilateral be $ABCD$ and $X$ be the intersection of the diagonals. For vector reasons and Euler line, it suffices to show that the circumcenters of $XAB$ and $XCD$ have the same sum as the circumcenters of $XBC$ and $XDA$. This follows directly by complex numbers if we set $X=0$, $A=1$, $B=y$, $C=x \in \mathbb{R}$, and $D=ry$ where $r \in \mathbb{R}$. $\blacksquare$
AshAuktober
07.06.2024 20:40
Sketch: circumcentres parallelogram, orthocentres parallelogram, compleks