TITLE: Inscribed Circles in a Quadrilateral
QUESTION [7 upvotes]: I found this problem online, where it was asked to prove EF = GH.

I was able to prove that, but got intrigued by how the four smaller inscribed circles could be constructed in the first place.
That is, given the fact that AD + BC = AB + CD (i.e. an inscribed circle can be constructed for ABCD), how can we contruct EF and GH, such that for each smaller quadrilateral, an incribed circle can be constructed?
Also, given a fixed quadrilateral with AD + BC = AB + CD, are the positions of EF and GH unique?
Any hints would be appreciated.

REPLY [4 votes]: We're going to use

Graves-Chasles Theorem (G-C) $\quad$ Let $ABCD$ be a convex quadrilateral such
that all its sides touch a conic $\alpha$. Then the following four
properties are equivalent:

There exists a circle inscribed into $ABCD$.
The points $A$ and $C$ lie on a conic confocal with $\alpha$.
The points $B$ and $D$ lie on a conic confocal with $\alpha$.
The intersections of opposite sides lie on a conic confocal with $\alpha$.



Let the foci $F_1,F_2$ be the intersections $AB\cdot CD$ and  $AD\cdot BC$ respectively.  We let conic $\alpha$ be the degenerate ellipse with foci $F_1,F_2$ and eccentricity $1$. By G-C, $A,C$ lie on an ellipse $\beta$ (blue) confocal with $\alpha$, and $D,B$ lie on a hyperbola $\gamma$(green) confocal with $\alpha$.
Let $P$ be the intersection of $\beta$ and $\gamma$, and let the lines $PF_1$ and $PF_2$ cut the quadrilateral in $E,F,G,H$.
By G-C, the four sub-quads are tangential (i.e. have an incircle).  For example, for $DEPH$, properties $3,4 \implies 1$.
Much more detail, including a proof of G-C, can be found in Akopyan & Bobenko, Incircular nets and confocal conics. Notably, this construction can be recursed and generalized to create so-called incircular nets.  G-C is Theorem 2.5 in the paper.