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k a My Retirement & New Leadership at AoPS
rrusczyk   1573
N 4 hours ago by SmartGroot
I write today to announce my retirement as CEO from Art of Problem Solving. When I founded AoPS 22 years ago, I never imagined that we would reach so many students and families, or that we would find so many channels through which we discover, inspire, and train the great problem solvers of the next generation. I am very proud of all we have accomplished and I’m thankful for the many supporters who provided inspiration and encouragement along the way. I'm particularly grateful to all of the wonderful members of the AoPS Community!

I’m delighted to introduce our new leaders - Ben Kornell and Andrew Sutherland. Ben has extensive experience in education and edtech prior to joining AoPS as my successor as CEO, including starting like I did as a classroom teacher. He has a deep understanding of the value of our work because he’s an AoPS parent! Meanwhile, Andrew and I have common roots as founders of education companies; he launched Quizlet at age 15! His journey from founder to MIT to technology and product leader as our Chief Product Officer traces a pathway many of our students will follow in the years to come.

Thank you again for your support for Art of Problem Solving and we look forward to working with millions more wonderful problem solvers in the years to come.

And special thanks to all of the amazing AoPS team members who have helped build AoPS. We’ve come a long way from here:IMAGE
1573 replies
rrusczyk
Mar 24, 2025
SmartGroot
4 hours ago
k a March Highlights and 2025 AoPS Online Class Information
jlacosta   0
Mar 2, 2025
March is the month for State MATHCOUNTS competitions! Kudos to everyone who participated in their local chapter competitions and best of luck to all going to State! Join us on March 11th for a Math Jam devoted to our favorite Chapter competition problems! Are you interested in training for MATHCOUNTS? Be sure to check out our AMC 8/MATHCOUNTS Basics and Advanced courses.

Are you ready to level up with Olympiad training? Registration is open with early bird pricing available for our WOOT programs: MathWOOT (Levels 1 and 2), CodeWOOT, PhysicsWOOT, and ChemWOOT. What is WOOT? WOOT stands for Worldwide Online Olympiad Training and is a 7-month high school math Olympiad preparation and testing program that brings together many of the best students from around the world to learn Olympiad problem solving skills. Classes begin in September!

Do you have plans this summer? There are so many options to fit your schedule and goals whether attending a summer camp or taking online classes, it can be a great break from the routine of the school year. Check out our summer courses at AoPS Online, or if you want a math or language arts class that doesn’t have homework, but is an enriching summer experience, our AoPS Virtual Campus summer camps may be just the ticket! We are expanding our locations for our AoPS Academies across the country with 15 locations so far and new campuses opening in Saratoga CA, Johns Creek GA, and the Upper West Side NY. Check out this page for summer camp information.

Be sure to mark your calendars for the following events:
[list][*]March 5th (Wednesday), 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET, HCSSiM Math Jam 2025. Amber Verser, Assistant Director of the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics, will host an information session about HCSSiM, a summer program for high school students.
[*]March 6th (Thursday), 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Free Webinar on Math Competitions from elementary through high school. Join us for an enlightening session that demystifies the world of math competitions and helps you make informed decisions about your contest journey.
[*]March 11th (Tuesday), 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET, 2025 MATHCOUNTS Chapter Discussion MATH JAM. AoPS instructors will discuss some of their favorite problems from the MATHCOUNTS Chapter Competition. All are welcome!
[*]March 13th (Thursday), 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Free Webinar about Summer Camps at the Virtual Campus. Transform your summer into an unforgettable learning adventure! From elementary through high school, we offer dynamic summer camps featuring topics in mathematics, language arts, and competition preparation - all designed to fit your schedule and ignite your passion for learning.[/list]
Our full course list for upcoming classes is below:
All classes run 7:30pm-8:45pm ET/4:30pm - 5:45pm PT unless otherwise noted.

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0 replies
jlacosta
Mar 2, 2025
0 replies
k i Peer-to-Peer Programs Forum
jwelsh   157
N Dec 11, 2023 by cw357
Many of our AoPS Community members share their knowledge with their peers in a variety of ways, ranging from creating mock contests to creating real contests to writing handouts to hosting sessions as part of our partnership with schoolhouse.world.

To facilitate students in these efforts, we have created a new Peer-to-Peer Programs forum. With the creation of this forum, we are starting a new process for those of you who want to advertise your efforts. These advertisements and ensuing discussions have been cluttering up some of the forums that were meant for other purposes, so we’re gathering these topics in one place. This also allows students to find new peer-to-peer learning opportunities without having to poke around all the other forums.

To announce your program, or to invite others to work with you on it, here’s what to do:

1) Post a new topic in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum. This will be the discussion thread for your program.

2) Post a single brief post in this thread that links the discussion thread of your program in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum.

Please note that we’ll move or delete any future advertisement posts that are outside the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum, as well as any posts in this topic that are not brief announcements of new opportunities. In particular, this topic should not be used to discuss specific programs; those discussions should occur in topics in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum.

Your post in this thread should have what you're sharing (class, session, tutoring, handout, math or coding game/other program) and a link to the thread in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum, which should have more information (like where to find what you're sharing).
157 replies
jwelsh
Mar 15, 2021
cw357
Dec 11, 2023
k i C&P posting recs by mods
v_Enhance   0
Jun 12, 2020
The purpose of this post is to lay out a few suggestions about what kind of posts work well for the C&P forum. Except in a few cases these are mostly meant to be "suggestions based on historical trends" rather than firm hard rules; we may eventually replace this with an actual list of firm rules but that requires admin approval :) That said, if you post something in the "discouraged" category, you should not be totally surprised if it gets locked; they are discouraged exactly because past experience shows they tend to go badly.
-----------------------------
1. Program discussion: Allowed
If you have questions about specific camps or programs (e.g. which classes are good at X camp?), these questions fit well here. Many camps/programs have specific sub-forums too but we understand a lot of them are not active.
-----------------------------
2. Results discussion: Allowed
You can make threads about e.g. how you did on contests (including AMC), though on AMC day when there is a lot of discussion. Moderators and administrators may do a lot of thread-merging / forum-wrangling to keep things in one place.
-----------------------------
3. Reposting solutions or questions to past AMC/AIME/USAMO problems: Allowed
This forum contains a post for nearly every problem from AMC8, AMC10, AMC12, AIME, USAJMO, USAMO (and these links give you an index of all these posts). It is always permitted to post a full solution to any problem in its own thread (linked above), regardless of how old the problem is, and even if this solution is similar to one that has already been posted. We encourage this type of posting because it is helpful for the user to explain their solution in full to an audience, and for future users who want to see multiple approaches to a problem or even just the frequency distribution of common approaches. We do ask for some explanation; if you just post "the answer is (B); ez" then you are not adding anything useful.

You are also encouraged to post questions about a specific problem in the specific thread for that problem, or about previous user's solutions. It's almost always better to use the existing thread than to start a new one, to keep all the discussion in one place easily searchable for future visitors.
-----------------------------
4. Advice posts: Allowed, but read below first
You can use this forum to ask for advice about how to prepare for math competitions in general. But you should be aware that this question has been asked many many times. Before making a post, you are encouraged to look at the following:
[list]
[*] Stop looking for the right training: A generic post about advice that keeps getting stickied :)
[*] There is an enormous list of links on the Wiki of books / problems / etc for all levels.
[/list]
When you do post, we really encourage you to be as specific as possible in your question. Tell us about your background, what you've tried already, etc.

Actually, the absolute best way to get a helpful response is to take a few examples of problems that you tried to solve but couldn't, and explain what you tried on them / why you couldn't solve them. Here is a great example of a specific question.
-----------------------------
5. Publicity: use P2P forum instead
See https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2489297_peertopeer_programs_forum.
Some exceptions have been allowed in the past, but these require approval from administrators. (I am not totally sure what the criteria is. I am not an administrator.)
-----------------------------
6. Mock contests: use Mock Contests forum instead
Mock contests should be posted in the dedicated forum instead:
https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c594864_aops_mock_contests
-----------------------------
7. AMC procedural questions: suggest to contact the AMC HQ instead
If you have a question like "how do I submit a change of venue form for the AIME" or "why is my name not on the qualifiers list even though I have a 300 index", you would be better off calling or emailing the AMC program to ask, they are the ones who can help you :)
-----------------------------
8. Discussion of random math problems: suggest to use MSM/HSM/HSO instead
If you are discussing a specific math problem that isn't from the AMC/AIME/USAMO, it's better to post these in Middle School Math, High School Math, High School Olympiads instead.
-----------------------------
9. Politics: suggest to use Round Table instead
There are important conversations to be had about things like gender diversity in math contests, etc., for sure. However, from experience we think that C&P is historically not a good place to have these conversations, as they go off the rails very quickly. We encourage you to use the Round Table instead, where it is much more clear that all posts need to be serious.
-----------------------------
10. MAA complaints: discouraged
We don't want to pretend that the MAA is perfect or that we agree with everything they do. However, we chose to discourage this sort of behavior because in practice most of the comments we see are not useful and some are frankly offensive.
[list] [*] If you just want to blow off steam, do it on your blog instead.
[*] When you have criticism, it should be reasoned, well-thought and constructive. What we mean by this is, for example, when the AOIME was announced, there was great outrage about potential cheating. Well, do you really think that this is something the organizers didn't think about too? Simply posting that "people will cheat and steal my USAMOO qualification, the MAA are idiots!" is not helpful as it is not bringing any new information to the table.
[*] Even if you do have reasoned, well-thought, constructive criticism, we think it is actually better to email it the MAA instead, rather than post it here. Experience shows that even polite, well-meaning suggestions posted in C&P are often derailed by less mature users who insist on complaining about everything.
[/list]
-----------------------------
11. Memes and joke posts: discouraged
It's fine to make jokes or lighthearted posts every so often. But it should be done with discretion. Ideally, jokes should be done within a longer post that has other content. For example, in my response to one user's question about olympiad combinatorics, I used a silly picture of Sogiita Gunha, but it was done within a context of a much longer post where it was meant to actually make a point.

On the other hand, there are many threads which consist largely of posts whose only content is an attached meme with the word "MAA" in it. When done in excess like this, the jokes reflect poorly on the community, so we explicitly discourage them.
-----------------------------
12. Questions that no one can answer: discouraged
Examples of this: "will MIT ask for AOIME scores?", "what will the AIME 2021 cutoffs be (asked in 2020)", etc. Basically, if you ask a question on this forum, it's better if the question is something that a user can plausibly answer :)
-----------------------------
13. Blind speculation: discouraged
Along these lines, if you do see a question that you don't have an answer to, we discourage "blindly guessing" as it leads to spreading of baseless rumors. For example, if you see some user posting "why are there fewer qualifiers than usual this year?", you should not reply "the MAA must have been worried about online cheating so they took fewer people!!". Was sich überhaupt sagen lässt, lässt sich klar sagen; und wovon man nicht reden kann, darüber muss man schweigen.
-----------------------------
14. Discussion of cheating: strongly discouraged
If you have evidence or reasonable suspicion of cheating, please report this to your Competition Manager or to the AMC HQ; these forums cannot help you.
Otherwise, please avoid public discussion of cheating. That is: no discussion of methods of cheating, no speculation about how cheating affects cutoffs, and so on --- it is not helpful to anyone, and it creates a sour atmosphere. A longer explanation is given in Seriously, please stop discussing how to cheat.
-----------------------------
15. Cutoff jokes: never allowed
Whenever the cutoffs for any major contest are released, it is very obvious when they are official. In the past, this has been achieved by the numbers being posted on the official AMC website (here) or through a post from the AMCDirector account.

You must never post fake cutoffs, even as a joke. You should also refrain from posting cutoffs that you've heard of via email, etc., because it is better to wait for the obvious official announcement. A longer explanation is given in A Treatise on Cutoff Trolling.
-----------------------------
16. Meanness: never allowed
Being mean is worse than being immature and unproductive. If another user does something which you think is inappropriate, use the Report button to bring the post to moderator attention, or if you really must reply, do so in a way that is tactful and constructive rather than inflammatory.
-----------------------------

Finally, we remind you all to sit back and enjoy the problems. :D

-----------------------------
(EDIT 2024-09-13: AoPS has asked to me to add the following item.)

Advertising paid program or service: never allowed

Per the AoPS Terms of Service (rule 5h), general advertisements are not allowed.

While we do allow advertisements of official contests (at the MAA and MATHCOUNTS level) and those run by college students with at least one successful year, any and all advertisements of a paid service or program is not allowed and will be deleted.
0 replies
v_Enhance
Jun 12, 2020
0 replies
k i Stop looking for the "right" training
v_Enhance   50
N Oct 16, 2017 by blawho12
Source: Contest advice
EDIT 2019-02-01: https://blog.evanchen.cc/2019/01/31/math-contest-platitudes-v3/ is the updated version of this.

EDIT 2021-06-09: see also https://web.evanchen.cc/faq-contest.html.

Original 2013 post
50 replies
v_Enhance
Feb 15, 2013
blawho12
Oct 16, 2017
Elements of set
shobber   12
N 11 minutes ago by Maximilian113
Source: APMO 1998
Let $F$ be the set of all $n$-tuples $(A_1, \ldots, A_n)$ such that each $A_{i}$ is a subset of $\{1, 2, \ldots, 1998\}$. Let $|A|$ denote the number of elements of the set $A$. Find
\[ \sum_{(A_1, \ldots, A_n)\in F} |A_1\cup A_2\cup \cdots \cup A_n|  \]
12 replies
shobber
Mar 17, 2006
Maximilian113
11 minutes ago
Cauchy-Schwarz 5
prtoi   2
N 30 minutes ago by sqing
Source: Handout by Samin Riasat
If a, b, c and d are positive real numbers such that a + b + c + d = 4 prove that
$\sum_{cyc}^{}\frac{a}{1+b^2c}\ge2$
2 replies
prtoi
Yesterday at 4:27 PM
sqing
30 minutes ago
Cauchy-Schwarz 3
prtoi   2
N 36 minutes ago by sqing
Source: Handout by Samin Riasat
For variables a,b,c be positive real numbers, prove that:
$\sum_{cyc}^{}(\frac{a}{a+2b})^2\ge \frac{1}{3}$
2 replies
prtoi
Yesterday at 4:22 PM
sqing
36 minutes ago
Cauchy-Schwarz 1
prtoi   3
N 38 minutes ago by sqing
Source: Handout by Samin Riasat
$\frac{a}{b+c}+\frac{b}{c+d}+\frac{c}{d+a}+\frac{d}{a+b}\ge2$
3 replies
prtoi
Yesterday at 4:16 PM
sqing
38 minutes ago
Perfect squares: 2011 USAJMO #1
v_Enhance   225
N 2 hours ago by de-Kirschbaum
Find, with proof, all positive integers $n$ for which $2^n + 12^n + 2011^n$ is a perfect square.
225 replies
v_Enhance
Apr 28, 2011
de-Kirschbaum
2 hours ago
Prove Collinearity
tc1729   128
N 3 hours ago by MathRook7817
Source: 2012 USAMO Day 2 #5 and USAJMO Day 2 #6
Let $P$ be a point in the plane of $\triangle ABC$, and $\gamma$ a line passing through $P$. Let $A', B', C'$ be the points where the reflections of lines $PA, PB, PC$ with respect to $\gamma$ intersect lines $BC, AC, AB$ respectively. Prove that $A', B', C'$ are collinear.
128 replies
tc1729
Apr 25, 2012
MathRook7817
3 hours ago
Pascal, Cayley and Fermat 2025
melpomene7   41
N 3 hours ago by jb2015007
Anyone else do a CEMC contest? I did fermat but totally fumbled and got a 108.
41 replies
melpomene7
Feb 28, 2025
jb2015007
3 hours ago
9 MOP Cutoff Via USAJMO
imagien_bad   33
N 4 hours ago by Alex-131
Vote here
33 replies
imagien_bad
Mar 24, 2025
Alex-131
4 hours ago
Base 2n of n^k
KevinYang2.71   48
N 4 hours ago by BS2012
Source: USAMO 2025/1, USAJMO 2025/2
Let $k$ and $d$ be positive integers. Prove that there exists a positive integer $N$ such that for every odd integer $n>N$, the digits in the base-$2n$ representation of $n^k$ are all greater than $d$.
48 replies
KevinYang2.71
Mar 20, 2025
BS2012
4 hours ago
[Registration Open] Gunn Math Competition is BACK!!!
the_math_prodigy   10
N 5 hours ago by RabtejKalra
Source: compete.gunnmathcircle.org
IMAGE

Gunn Math Competition will take place at Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California on THIS Sunday, March 30th. Gather a team of up to four and compete for over $7,500 in prizes! The deadline to sign up is March 27th. We welcome participants of all skill levels, with separate Beginner and Advanced (AIME) divisions for all students, from advanced 4th graders to 12th graders.

For more information, check our website, [url][/url]compete.gunnmathcircle.org, where registration is free and now open. The deadline to sign up is this Friday, March 28th. If you are unable to make a team, register as an individual and we will be able to create teams for you.

Special Guest Speaker: Po-Shen LohIMAGE
We are honored to welcome Po-Shen Loh, a world-renowned mathematician, Carnegie Mellon professor, and former coach of the USA International Math Olympiad team. He will deliver a several 30-minute talks to both students and parents, offering deep insights into mathematical thinking and problem-solving in the age of AI!

For any questions, reach out at ghsmathcircle@gmail.com or ask in our Discord server, which you can join through the website.

Find information on our AoPS page too! https://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php/Gunn_Math_Competition_(GMC)
Thank you to our sponsors for making this possible!
IMAGE

Check out our flyer! IMAGE
10 replies
the_math_prodigy
Mar 24, 2025
RabtejKalra
5 hours ago
What should I do
Jaxman8   2
N Yesterday at 8:02 PM by Aaronjudgeisgoat
I recently mocked 2 AMC 10’s, and 2 AIME’s. My scores for the AMC 10 were both 123 and my AIME scores were 8 and 9 for 2010 I and II. What should I study for 2025-2026 AMCs? Goal is JMO.
2 replies
Jaxman8
Yesterday at 5:08 AM
Aaronjudgeisgoat
Yesterday at 8:02 PM
so what's an excircle?
Vfire   50
N Yesterday at 6:50 PM by daijobu
Source: 2019 AIME I #11
In $\triangle ABC$, the sides have integers lengths and $AB=AC$. Circle $\omega$ has its center at the incenter of $\triangle ABC$. An excircle of $\triangle ABC$ is a circle in the exterior of $\triangle ABC$ that is tangent to one side of the triangle and tangent to the extensions of the other two sides. Suppose that the excircle tangent to $\overline{BC}$ is internally tangent to $\omega$, and the other two excircles are both externally tangent to $\omega$. Find the minimum possible value of the perimeter of $\triangle ABC$.
50 replies
Vfire
Mar 14, 2019
daijobu
Yesterday at 6:50 PM
USACO Gold Cutoffs
SweetTangyOrange   17
N Yesterday at 6:43 PM by fake123
share USACO Gold to predict cutoff

$\begin{tabular}{c} Score \\ \hline
717 
\end{tabular}$
17 replies
SweetTangyOrange
Tuesday at 2:02 PM
fake123
Yesterday at 6:43 PM
ARML math competetion
purpledonutdragon   8
N Yesterday at 5:19 PM by BoyAthena
Do you guys have any tips for ARML? What are some concepts that will be very helpful in ARML?
8 replies
purpledonutdragon
Tuesday at 12:39 PM
BoyAthena
Yesterday at 5:19 PM
Fermat points and Euler line
Omid Hatami   8
N Jan 22, 2008 by jayme
Source: Unknown
Prove that $FF' || OH.$ Where $F$ is Fermat point, $F'$ is its isogonal conjugate and $O$ and $H$ are circumcenter and orthocenter of $\triangle ABC.$
8 replies
Omid Hatami
Aug 22, 2004
jayme
Jan 22, 2008
Fermat points and Euler line
G H J
Source: Unknown
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Omid Hatami
1275 posts
#1 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
Prove that $FF' || OH.$ Where $F$ is Fermat point, $F'$ is its isogonal conjugate and $O$ and $H$ are circumcenter and orthocenter of $\triangle ABC.$
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by Luis González, Jan 20, 2018, 7:02 PM
Reason: Making proposition clearer and fixing grammar
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grobber
7849 posts
#2 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
Is $F'$ the second fermat point? Because if it is, then it's not true. As far as I know, If $F_1,F_2$ are the first and second Fermat points, and $I_1,I_2$ are the first and second isodynamic points (just think that $I_i$ is the isogonal conjugate of $F_i$), then $F_iI_i\|OH$.

[There was an error, so I've edited it.]
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by grobber, Aug 22, 2004, 7:24 PM
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Pascual2005
1160 posts
#3 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
what are isodinamic points? can someone explain a little about it?
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grobber
7849 posts
#4 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
The locus of point $M$ s.t. $\frac{MB}{MC}=\frac{AB}{AC}$ is a circle having the segment bounded by the foot of the $a$-bisector and the foot of the exterior $a$-bisector. This circle is called the $a$-Apollonius circle. Similarly we define the $b$ and $c$-Apollonius circles. It can be shown that these three circles are coaxal, and the two points through all three of them pass are called the isodynamic points of the triangle $ABC$.

It's also true that the isodynamic points are the isogonal conjugates of the Fermat points, and this is, I think, more useful in this context. Another interesting property (which is crucial in proving the fact that they're the isogonal conjugates of the Fermat points) is that these two are the only points which have equilateral pedal triangles.
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darij grinberg
6555 posts
#5 • 3 Y
Y by AlastorMoody, Adventure10, Mango247
Omid Hatami wrote:
Prove that $FF' || OH$ that $F$ is fermat point and $O$ and $H$ are citcumcenter and orthocenter.

The only thing that makes me wonder is this strange "Very hard" with 9 exclamation signs. Especially this is because my experience shows that a problem you call "hard" (even without any exclamation sign) is already far beyound my brain. And now this one, really strange...

In fact, I assume that you mean by F' the isogonal conjugate of F, i. e. the first isodynamic point of the triangle.

For reasons of convenience, I rename F' as J (just since I am more used to this letter for an isodynamic point) and hence rewrite your problem as follows:

Let F be the first Fermat point and J the first isodynamic point of a triangle ABC. Prove that the line FJ is parallel to the Euler line of triangle ABC.

For the solution, I will use three lemmas:

Lemma 1. If $P_a$, $P_b$, $P_c$ are the reflections of a point P in the sides BC, CA, AB of a triangle ABC, then the circumcenter of the triangle $P_a P_b P_c$ is the isogonal conjugate Q of the point P with respect to the triangle ABC, and we have $P_b P_c \perp AQ$, $P_c P_a \perp BQ$ and $P_a P_b \perp CQ$.

Lemma 2 (extended Napoleon theorem). If D, E, L are the centers of the equilateral triangles erected outwardly on the sides BC, CA, AB of the triangle ABC, then the triangle DEL is equilateral, and its center is the centroid G of triangle ABC.

Lemma 3. For the first Fermat point F of triangle ABC, we have $EL \perp AF$, $LD \perp BF$, $DE \perp CF$.

Now, consider the reflections X, Y, Z of the point J in the sides BC, CA, AB of triangle ABC. We know that the first Fermat point F and the first isodynamic point J of triangle ABC are mutually isogonal conjugate points, so we can apply Lemma 1 and see that the circumcenter of the triangle XYZ is the isogonal conjugate of the point J, i. e. the point F, and that we have $YZ \perp AF$, $ZX \perp BF$ and $XY \perp CF$. Together with $EL \perp AF$, $LD \perp BF$, $DE \perp CF$ (from Lemma 3), this yields YZ || EL, ZX || LD and XY || DE. Hence, the triangles XYZ and DEL are homothetic. Since the triangle DEL is equilateral (Lemma 2), it follows that the triangle XYZ is also equilateral. Hence, instead of saying that the circumcenter of the triangle XYZ is the point F, we can simply claim that the center of the triangle XYZ is the point F.

Now, since the triangles XYZ and DEL are homothetic, there exists a homothety h mapping the triangle XYZ to the triangle DEL. This homothety h maps the center F of the triangle XYZ to the center of the triangle DEL, hence to the centroid G of triangle ABC (because of Lemma 2). Now let $J_1$ be the image of the point J in the homothety h. Then, since a homothety maps lines to parallel lines, we have $DJ_1 \parallel XJ$. But $XJ \perp BC$ (since the point X is the reflection of the point J in the line BC). Thus, $DJ_1 \perp BC$. But the point D is the center of the equilateral triangle constructed outwardly on the side BC of triangle ABC, and hence lies on the perpendicular bisector of this side BC. Thus, the line $DJ_1$, passing through D and being perpendicular to BC, must be the perpendicular bisector of this side BC. In other words, the point $J_1$ lies on the perpendicular bisector of the side BC. Similarly, the same point $J_1$ lies on the perpendicular bisectors of the other two sides of triangle ABC. And this shows that our point $J_1$ coincides with the circumcenter O of triangle ABC. Hence, the image of the point J in the homothety h is the point O.

So we have seen that the homothety h takes the points F and J to the points G and O, respectively. Therefore, GO || FJ. But the line GO is just the Euler line of triangle ABC, and thus we see that the line FJ is parallel to the Euler line of triangle ABC.

Qed..

See also Hyacinthos message #7957 for some related results.

PS. I had also posted some explanations about the isodynamic points on http://www.mathlinks.ro/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=6489 .

Darij
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Peter
3615 posts
#6 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
darij grinberg wrote:
The only thing that makes me wonder is this strange "Very hard" with 9 exclamation signs. Especially this is because my experience shows that a problem you call "hard" (even without any exclamation sign) is already far beyound my brain. And now this one, really strange...

Perhaps that just means you're better in geometry, darij? ;)
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Omid Hatami
1275 posts
#7 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
Believe me the problem is very difficult.Of course your geometry is excellent.
$F'$ also is a point in triangle that:
\[ <F'BC=FBA , <F'CB=FCA\]
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darij grinberg
6555 posts
#8 • 3 Y
Y by AlastorMoody, Adventure10, Mango247
Omid Hatami wrote:
Believe me the problem is very difficult.Of course your geometry is excellent.

Thanks, I'm always glad to hear this... ;) but I remember there are some much harder problems about the Fermat and isodynamic points.

Actually, a triangle ABC has two Fermat points, two Napoleon points and two isodynamic points. These six points altogether are called FNI points (for: Fermat, Napoleon, Isodynamic). It turns out that any two of these six FNI points are collinear with (at least) one other interesting triangle center; hence, altogether, we get $\displaystyle \binom{6}{2}=15$ interesting collinearities, the so-called FNI collinearities. For a list of these collinearities, you can look at my Hyacinthos message #6602, or you can also consult four Forum Geometricorum papers by the late Lawrence S. Evans (paper 1, paper 2, paper 3, paper 4).

The problem with all the FNI collinearities is that they are quite easy to show using barycentric coordinates, but most of them haven't been proven synthetically yet.

The problem you posted, namely to show that the line FF' is parallel to the Euler line of triangle ABC, is number X in my list (actually, in the list, I don't say "the line is parallel to the Euler line", but I say "the line passes through the Euler infinity point"; actually, this Euler infinity point is just the infinite point (on the projective plane) which is common to all lines parallel to the Euler line). Of course, the collinearity number XI is analogous. The collinearity IX has a not-so-difficult synthetic proof, too. But does anybody have synthetic proofs to the other 15 - 3 = 12 FNI collinearities?

And actually, once the day will come and all 15 collinearities will be shown, the time will be ready for a synthetic proof of the Lester circle theorem. So you see, there are lots of VERY hard problems in geometry left to be solved...
Omid Hatami wrote:
$F'$ also is a point in triangle that:
\[ <F'BC=FBA , <F'CB=FCA\]

Yes, that's exactly the definition of F' as the isogonal conjugate of F.

Darij
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jayme
9767 posts
#9 • 1 Y
Y by Adventure10
Dear all,
another proof has been put on my website in an article intilted "La fascinante figure de Cundy" (volume 2 (2008)).
http://perso.orange.fr/jl.ayme/
Sincerely
Jean-Louis
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