The Five Circles Theorem (Jacobs, Page 568) Theorem.

Given a quadrilateral ABCD inscribed in a circle, draw diagonals AC and BD. Then construct the inscribed circles of ABC , BCD , ACD , and ABD and label their centers E, F, G, and H as in the diagram below. Peter Renz, an editor of Jacobs' book, Geometry: Seeing, Doing, Understanding Third Edition, challenged me to produce a proof of this result that is more elementary than the one suggested by Jacobs in the Teachers Guide, which makes use of reflections. I found one which does not depend on transformational methods and depends only results commonly taught in a first course in geometry.
In what follows, I present the proof and also discuss how I used Geometer's Sketchpad to help discover the proof. First, I used Sketchpad to construct the diagram, take measurements, and totally convince myself that the centers of the four inscribed circles indeed form the vertices of a rectangle. Next, to simplify the diagram, I left out the inscribed circles, because the result only refers to their centers, which are determined as the intersections of angle bisectors. The diagram:

B W E F H A G Y I X

D Z

Color code: Blue line segments are from the given problem. Red rays are angle bisectors, whose intersections E, F, G, and H are the vertices of the quadrilateral we will prove is a rectangle. The thin black lines are construction lines that will be explained below. From the Sketchpad diagram, I noticed and convinced myself of a number of facts, which if proven would lead to the desired proof. (1) Each of the 8 angle bisectors meets another angle bisector at the on the circle, introducing 4 points on the circle that I labeled W, X, Y, Z. (2) Lines WY and XZ which intersect at I are perpendicular to one another. It suffices to prove that one angle in the quadrilateral EFGH is a right angle, because there is nothing distinguishing about the vertices so the proof could be completed by changing the letters in the proof for one vertex. We pick vertex F. (3) Angle EFG is a right angle, so all four angles are right angles and the quadrilateral is a rectangle. For Step (1), it suffices to show the result for one pair of bisectors, as the proofs for all are essentially the same. Note BAC BDC because both are inscribed angles that cut off the same arc on their circle. Because the red lines are bisectors, it follows that EAC CDF , and since these two angles are inscribed, they must cut off equal arcs. Both arcs start at C, so they must pass through the same point on the circle. For Step (2), we use the theorem which states that an angle formed by crossed chords is the sum of the two intercepted arcs. So

m(XCY) + m(WAZ) m(BAD) + m(BCD) = and since the opposite angles of 2 2 an inscribed quadrilateral are supplementary, it follows that m(XIY) = 90 and the lines are perpendicular. m(XIY) =
We break step (3) into parts: (3a) First we note that ZX bisects EXF . (3b) Next we prove that XE = XF and so XEF is isosceles, which together with (3a) proves that ZX is an altitude of isosceles triangle XEF, and hence is perpendicular to EF. This is the crux of Step (3) and depends on Lemma 1, below. (3c) Together with Step (2) this shows that adjacent sides of quadrilateral ABCD are perpendicular to one another.

For Step (3a), note that m(AXZ) = m(ABZ) since the angles cut off the same arc on the circle. Since BZ bisects ABC it follows that AXZ = bisects AXD EXF .

1 1 mAZ = mZD = ZXD , and ZX 2 2

Lemma. Let E be the incenter of ABC and X be the intersection of the ray AE with the circumcircle O of the triangle. Then XB = XC = XE.
B A E O X

C Y

Proof. (I'm sure this is very well known, but I didn't remember it, so I derived it.) Since E is the
incenter, AX bisects BAC and hence mBX = mCX . Since the two arcs are equal, their corresponding chords are equal and BX = CX. Construct BE and produce it to intersect O at Y. Then EBX = chords theorem we also have BEX =

1 m(XCY) . From the crossed 2

1 (mBX + mAY) . But since the angle bisectors all pass 2

through E, it follows that m(BX) = m(CX) and m(AY) = m(CY) . Substituting, we get

BEX =

1 1 (mXC + mCY) = mXCY. Therefore EBX = BEX and XE = XB. 2 2

For Step (3c) we have XZ EF and XZ WY . A similar argument applied to YFG shows that FG WY. Therefore quadrilateral EFGH has a right angle at F. Similar arguments show all four angles are right angles.