Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 4.5 AIME Find the answer United States

Problem:
There exists a unique circle that is both tangent to the parabola y=x2y = x^{2} at two points and tangent to the curve x=y31yx = \sqrt{\frac{y^{3}}{1 - y}}. Compute the radius of this circle.

Proposed by: Karthik Venkata Vedula

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Solution:

Figure 1

We can square both sides of the second curve to get x2=y31yx^{2} = \frac{y^{3}}{1 - y}, which further rearranges to
x2(x2+y2)2=yx2+y2. \frac{x^{2}}{(x^{2} + y^{2})^{2}} = \frac{y}{x^{2} + y^{2}}.
This relation implies that curves y=x2y = x^{2} and x2=y31yx^{2} = \frac{y^{3}}{1 - y} map to each other under inversion about the unit circle x2+y2=1x^{2} + y^{2} = 1. Therefore, the unique circle we seek must be invariant under inversion about x2+y2=1x^{2} + y^{2} = 1.

Since the circle is tangent to y=x2y = x^{2}, we know that the circle is of the form
x2+(yy0)2=r2. x^{2} + (y - y_{0})^{2} = r^{2}.
We know that the length of the tangent from (0,0)(0,0) to this circle is 11. Since the distance from (0,0)(0,0) to the center of the circle is y0y_{0}, using the Pythagorean Theorem gives r2+1=y02r^{2} + 1 = y_{0}^{2}.

Because the parabola y=x2y = x^{2} is tangent to this circle at two distinct points, the equation x2+(x2y0)2=r2=y021x^{2} + (x^{2} - y_{0})^{2} = r^{2} = y_{0}^{2} - 1 must have two double roots. Therefore,
x2+(x2y0)2(y021)=x4(2y01)x2+1 x^{2} + (x^{2} - y_{0})^{2} - (y_{0}^{2} - 1) = x^{4} - (2y_{0} - 1)x^{2} + 1
must be a perfect square, so 2y01=2    y0=322y_{0} - 1 = 2 \implies y_{0} = \frac{3}{2}.

This means r2=y021=54r^{2} = y_{0}^{2} - 1 = \frac{5}{4}, so the radius of the circle is [52]\left[\frac{\sqrt{5}}{2}\right].

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.