IMO 1981 · Problem 5

Three congruent circles have a common point \(O\) and lie inside a given triangle. Each circle touches a pair of sides of the triangle. Prove that the incenter and the circumcenter of the triangle and the point \(O\) are collinear.

Official text of the problem. Official problem paper (PDF)

Solution

Let the triangle be \(ABC\), with incenter \(I\), circumcenter \(K\), inradius \(r\), and circumradius \(R\). Let the three circles have common radius \(\rho>0\).

For a fixed pair of sides, there is at most one circle of radius \(\rho\) inside the triangle tangent to both: its center must be the intersection of the two lines parallel to those sides at inward distance \(\rho\). Thus the three distinct circles must touch different pairs of sides. Label their centers \(X_A,X_B,X_C\), corresponding respectively to the pairs \(AB,AC\), \(BA,BC\), and \(CA,CB\).

The points \(A,X_A,I\) lie on the internal bisector of angle \(A\). Taking perpendicular distances to \(AB\) gives \[ AX_A\sin\frac A2=\rho, \qquad AI\sin\frac A2=r. \] Consequently, with \(t=\rho/r\), \[ \overrightarrow{AX_A}=t\overrightarrow{AI}, \qquad\text{hence}\qquad \overrightarrow{IX_A}=(1-t)\overrightarrow{IA}. \] The same reasoning at \(B\) and \(C\) gives \[ \overrightarrow{IX_B}=(1-t)\overrightarrow{IB}, \qquad \overrightarrow{IX_C}=(1-t)\overrightarrow{IC}. \] We have \(t\ne1\), since otherwise all three centers would equal \(I\), making the three circles identical.

Therefore the homothety with center \(I\) and nonzero ratio \(1-t\) sends \(A,B,C\) to \(X_A,X_B,X_C\). In particular, these three centers are noncollinear.

Let \(K'\) be the image of \(K\) under this homothety, so that \[ \overrightarrow{IK'}=(1-t)\overrightarrow{IK}. \] Since the homothety multiplies distances by \(|1-t|\), \[ K'X_A=K'X_B=K'X_C=|1-t|R. \] Thus \(K'\) is the circumcenter of triangle \(X_AX_BX_C\). But the common point \(O\) satisfies \[ OX_A=OX_B=OX_C=\rho, \] so \(O\) is also its circumcenter. Uniqueness of the circumcenter of a nondegenerate triangle yields \(O=K'\). Hence \[ \overrightarrow{IO}=(1-t)\overrightarrow{IK}, \] which proves the required collinearity. If \(I=K\), this identity gives \(O=I=K\), so that case is included. \(\square\)

The solution was checked against John Scholes' IMO solution archive (Kalva).