International Journal of Computer Discovered Mathematics (IJCDM)

ISSN 2367-7775 IJCDM

c
Volume 3, 2018, pp.82-87.
Received 27 June 2018. Published on-line 29 June 2018
web: http://www.journal-1.eu/
The
c Author(s) This article is published with open access1.

An Extension of the Steiner Line Theorem

and Application
Nguyen Ngoc Gianga 2 and Le Viet Anb
a
Banking University of Ho Chi Minh City
36 Ton That Dam street, district 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
[email protected]
b
No 15, Alley 2, Ngoc Anh Hamlet, Phu Thuong Ward,
Phu Vang District, Thua Thien Hue, Vietnam
[email protected]

Abstract. We extend the Steiner line with its synthetic proof as well as introduce
an application.
Keywords. Steiner line, anti-steiner, proof.

1. Introduction

The Steiner line theorem is a well known old theorem ([1], [2] and [3]). In [5], it
is formulated in the following form.
Theorem 1.1. If P is a point belonging to the circumcircle of triangle ABC, then
the images of P through the reflections with axes BC, CA and AB, respectively
lie on the same line that passes through the orthocenter of ABC.

This line is called the Steiner line of P with respect to triangle ABC.
And in [4] and [5], we have the following concerned result.
Theorem 1.2. (N.S. Collings). If a line L passes through the orthocenter of
ABC, then the images of L through the reflections with axes BC, CA and AB are
concurrent at one point on the circumcircle of ABC.

This point is named the anti-Steiner point of L with respect to ABC. Of course,
L is Steiner line of P with respect to ABC if and only if P is the anti-Steiner
point of L with respect to ABC.
Theorem 1 can be extended as follows.
1This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original
author(s) and the source are credited.
2Corresponding author
82
 Nguyen Ngoc Giang and Le Viet An 83

Theorem 1.3. ([6]). Given a triangle ABC inscribed in a circle (O) and the
orthocenter H. A line ` passes through H. Let P be a point lying on the circle
(O) and Q be a point lying on ` (Q can be a point at infinity). Lines AQ, BQ, CQ
meet (O) at A0 , B 0 , C 0 , respectively. Line P A0 , P B 0 , P C 0 meet ` at AP , BP , CP ,
respectively. Let A0 , B0 , C0 be the symmetric points of AP under a symmetry
about BC, BP about CA, CP about AB, respectively. Then four points A0 , B0 , C0
and H lie on a line.

Clearly, when Q belongs to P H or Q belongs to (O), we always obtain the theorem

1.

In this article, we present a synthetic proof of Theorem 1. We use (O), (XY Z) to

denote the circle with center O, and the circumcircle of triangle XY Z, respectively.
As in [7, p.12], the directed angle from the line a to the line b denoted by (a, b).
It measures the angle through which a must be rotated in the positive direction
in order to become parallel to, or to coincide with, b. Therefore,
(i) −90◦ ≤ (a, b) ≤ 90◦ ,
(ii) If c is a line then (a, b) = (a, c) + (c, b),
(iii) Two lines a and a0 are parallel or coincident if and only if (a, b) = (a0 , b),
(iv) If a0 and b0 are the images of a and b respectively under a reflection, then
(a, b) = (b0 , a0 ),
(v) Four non-collinear points A, B, C, D are concyclic if and only if (AC, AD) =
(BC, BD).

2. Proof of Theorem 3

We need a following lemma:

Lemma 2.1. Given a triangle ABC inscribed in a circle (O) and a line `. Let
P be a point lying on (O) and Q be a point lying on ` (Q can be a point at
infinity). Lines P A, P B, P C meet ` at AP , BP , CP , respectively. Then the circles
(BCAP ), (CABP ) and (ABCP ) have a common point lying on `.

Proof. (See figure 1). Let A 1 := BCP ∩CBP . Applying the converse of the
B P C
Pascal theorem for six points with the note that three points CP =
C 0 A1 B 0
BA1 ∩ P C 0 , Q = BB 0 ∩ CC 0 , BP = P B 0 ∩ CA1 lie on the same line ` and five
points B, P, C, C 0 , B 0 lie on the same circle (O). If follows that A1 belongs to (O).

Using the directed angle between two lines, we have

(RA, RBP ) = (RA, RCP ) (by R, BP , CP are collinear)
= (BA, BCP ) (by B ∈ (ARCP ))
= (BA, BA1 ) (by B, CP , A1 are collinear)
= (CA, CA1 ) (by C ∈ (ABA1 ))
= (CA, CBP ) (by C, BP , A1 are collinear).
This thing proves that R belongs to the circle (CABP ).
Similarly, we also have R belonging to the circle (BCAP ).
Lemma 4 is proved.
84 An Extension of the Steiner Line Theorem

Figure 1.

The proof of theorem 3. (see figure 2). According to the lemma 4, we have
R := ` ∩ (BCAP ) ∩ (CABP ) ∩ (ABCP ).
Since H belongs to `, by the theorem 2, ` has the anti-Steiner point S with respect
to triangle ABC.
Line AH meets (O) at A and A2 . We easily see that A2 is the symmetric point
of H under a symmetry about line BC. Hence,
(1) SA2 is the symmetric line of ` under a symmetry about line BC.
It follows that three lines BC, ` and SA2 are either concurrent or pairs of them
are parallel each other.
• If BC, ` and SA2 are parallel then we note that each set of four points (B, C, R, AP )
and (B, C, S, A2 ) also belongs to a circle so R, S are the symmetric points of AP , A2
under a symmetry about the perpendicular bisector of segment BC. It follows
that R, S, AP , A2 lie on the same circle. Conversely, if I := BC ∩ ` ∩ SA2 then by
the intersecting chords theorem, we have IR.IAP = IB.IC = IS.IA2 . It follows
four points R, S, AP , A2 belonging to a circle. Thus, in any case, we always have
(2) R, S, AP , A2 belonging to a circle.
On the other hand, we easily see that
(3) A2 AP is the symmetric line of HA0 under a symmetry about the line BC.
We have
(RS, `) = (RS, RAP ) (by R, AP ∈ `)
= (A2 S, A2 AP ) (by (2))
= (HA0 , `) (by (1) and (3)).
 Nguyen Ngoc Giang and Le Viet An 85

Figure 2.

It follow RS being parallel to or coincident with HA0 .

Similarly, we also have RS being parallel to or coincident with HB0 and HC0 .
Hence, four points A0 , B0 , C0 and H lie on the same line being parallel to or
coincident with RS. This means that theorem 3 is proved.

3. An Application of Theorem 3

Theorem 3.1. Given a triangle ABC inscribed in a circle (O) and the orthocenter
H. Line ` passes through H. Let P be a point lying on (O) and two points Q
and D lie on `. Lines AQ, BQ, CQ meet (O) at A0 , B 0 , C 0 , respectively. Circles
(A0 DP ), (B 0 DP ), (C 0 DP ) meet ` at AP , BP , CP , respectively. Let A0 , B0 , C0 be
the symmetric points of AP under a symmetry about BC, BP under a symmetry
about CA, CP under a symmetry about AB. Then four points A0 , B0 , C0 and H
lie on the same line.

-When P lies on ` then line A0 B0 C0 H is the Steiner line of P with respect to

ABC.
Proof. (see figure 3). Line DP meets (O) at P and E; construct the chord EF of
(O) such that it is parallel to or coincident with `.
86 An Extension of the Steiner Line Theorem

Figure 3.

Using the directed angle, we have

(A0 AP , EF ) = (A0 AP , `) (by EF is parallel to or coincident with `)

= (AP A0 , AP D) (by AP , D ∈ `)
0
= (P A , P D) (by P ∈ (A0 DAP ))
= (P A0 , P E) (by E ∈ DP )
= (F A0 , F E) (by F ∈ (A0 EP )).

It follows that A0 AP and A0 F are coincident. Hence F belongs to A0 AP .

Similarly, we also have F belonging to B 0 BP and C 0 CP .
Applying theorem 3 with the note that AP = F A0 ∩ `, BP = F B 0 ∩ ` and CP =
F C 0 ∩ ` then we have that four points A0 , B0 , C0 and H lie on the same line.
Theorem 5 is proved.

References
[1] Steiner line, available at
http://users.math.uoc.gr/~pamfilos/eGallery/problems/SteinerLine.html.
[2] Steiner line, available at
http://www.xtec.cat/~qcastell/ttw/ttweng/llistes/l_Steiner_r.html.
[3] Droite de Steiner,
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droite_de_Steiner
[4] S. N. Collings: Reflections on a triangle 1, Math. Gazette, 57 (1973) 291–293.
[5] D. Grinberg, Anti-Steiner points with respect to a triangle, preprint 2003, available at
http://www.cip.ifi.lmu.de/~grinberg/geometry2.html
 Nguyen Ngoc Giang and Le Viet An 87

[6] V.A. Le, Advanced Plane Geometry, message 4035, August 26, 2017,
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/AdvancedPlaneGeometry/conversations/
messages/4035.
[7] R. A. Johnson, Advanced Euclidean Geometry, 1929, Dover reprint 2007.
[8] Jean-Pierre Ehrmann, Steiner’s Theorems on the Complete Quadrilateral, Forum Geomet-
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[9] C. Pohoata, On the Euler Reflection Point, Forum Geometricorum, Volume 10 (2010)
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[10] P. Yiu, Introduction to the Geometry of the Triangle, 2001, new version of 2013, math.
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