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Geometry Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it

Let ABCA B C be a triangle and D,E,FD, E, F be the midpoints of arcsBC,CA,AB\operatorname{arcs} B C, C A, A B on the circumcircle. Line a\ell_{a} passes through the feet of the perpendiculars from AA to DB\overline{D B} and DC\overline{D C}. Line mam_{a} passes through the feet of the perpendiculars from DD to AB\overline{A B} and AC\overline{A C}. Let A1A_{1} denote the intersection of lines a\ell_{a} and mam_{a}. Define points B1B_{1} and C1C_{1} similarly. Prove that triangles DEFD E F and A1B1C1A_{1} B_{1} C_{1} are similar to each other.

Solution

In fact, it is true for any points D,E,FD, E, F on the circumcircle. More strongly we contend: Claim - Point A1A_{1} is the midpoint of HD\overline{H D}. ! Hence A1B1C1A_{1} B_{1} C_{1} is similar to DEFD E F through a homothety at HH with ratio 12\frac{1}{2}.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.