Triangles with Equal Perimeters

Ankan Bhattacharya

October 29, 2018

Problem. Let ABCD be a quadrilateral circumscribed about a circle with center I. Let γ be a
circle whose center P 6= I lies inside ABCD. Rays P A, P B, P C, P D intersect γ at W , X, Y , Z,
respectively.
Prove that if 4AP B, 4BP C, 4CP D, and 4DP A have equal perimeters, then lines P I, W Y ,
and XZ are concurrent.

Solution. Without loss of generality assume the common perimeter is 2; then by the triangle
inequality max(P A, P B, P C, P D) < 1. Then let A1 be the point along ray P A with P A1 = 1, and
let ωA be the circle with center A and radius AA1 . Define B1 , C1 , D1 , ωB , ωC , and ωD similarly.
Then, ωA and ωB are tangent to each other by the perimeter condition; cyclic equivalents hold. In
addition, ωA , ωB , ωC , and ωD are tangent to the circle ω with center P and radius 1.

D1
A1
A TD D
P
TA I TC
K
B C
TB
B1 C1

U V

1
 def
By considering a homothety at P , we must prove that P , I, and K = A1 C1 ∩ B1 D1 are collinear.
Let the P -excircle of 4P AB and the incircle of ABCD touch AB at TA and TA0 respectively; define
TB , TB0 , etc. in a cyclic fashion. It is easy to see that ωA and ωB are tangent to each other at TA .

Claim. Points TA , TB , TC , TD lie on a circle Γ with center I.

Proof. It is apparent that ATA = ATD (radius of ωA ) and ATA0 = ATD0 (tangent to incircle), so
TA TA0 = TD TD0 . Similarly, all the lengths TA TA0 , TB TB0 , TC TC0 , and TD TD0 are equal, say to `. By
√ Pythagorean theorem, letting r be the inradius of ABCD, the circle centered at I with radius
the
r2 + `2 passes through TA , TB , TC , and TD .

Now we can ignore ABCD. Introduce U = TA TD ∩ TB TC and V = TA TB ∩ TC TD . We assume U

and V exist; otherwise ABCD has an axis of symmetry and the result is clear.

Claim. Lines TA TD , TB TC , and B1 D1 , along with the tangents to ω at A1 and C1 , meet at U .

Proof. By Monge on ωB , ωA , ωD the exsimilicenter of ωB and ωD lies on line TA TD ; similarly it lies

on line TB TC and so it is U . By Monge on ωB , ω, ωD , point U lies on line B1 D1 .
U D1 U TA
Since U is the exsimilicenter, U TD = U B1 , or U B1 · U D1 = U TA · U TD = U TB · U TC . Hence U lies
on the radical axis of ωC and ω, the tangent to ω at C1 . Similarly it lies on the tangent to ω at
A1 .

Similar results hold for V . Now, let ωU be the circle with center U and radius U A = U C; define ωV
similarly. We are finally ready to end the proof:

Claim. Points P , I, and K lie on the radical axis of ωU and ωV .

Proof. For P , note ωU and ωV are orthogonal to ω, so PowωU (P ) = PowωV (P ) = 1. For K, note
that PowωU (K) = KA1 · KC1 = KB1 · KD1 = PowωV (K). For I, we prove that Γ is orthogonal to
ωU and ωV . Indeed U A21 = U TA · U TD = U TB · U TC , so Γ is orthogonal to ωU and similarly ωV .
The desired result follows.