Let be an acute triangle, and let be the feet of the altitudes from , respectively. The lines and cross at , and the line through and parallel to crosses the lines and at and , respectively. Prove that the circle passes through the midpoint of the side .
Solution
Let be the midpoint of the side . If , then is the ideal point of the line , the points and fall at and , respectively, and the circle degenerates into the line on which clearly lies.

Assume henceforth that , say, . It is clearly sufficient to show that
Since and are parallel, and are concyclic ( and both lie on the circle on diameter ), so are . Hence , and it is therefore sufficient to show that , i.e., , since , and . Alternatively, but equivalently, , since .
The points are concyclic (they all lie on the nine-point circle of the triangle ), so . The points are also concyclic (recall that and both lie on the circle on diameter ), so . Consequently, , as desired.
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