Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2013

Geometry Difficulty 7.0 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Japan

Let ABCDABCD be a convex quadrilateral for which the line segments ACAC and BDBD intersect perpendicularly at a point XX. Suppose AX=5AX = 5, BX=6BX = 6 and CX=20CX = 20 are satisfied. Let us denote by O1,O2,O3O_1, O_2, O_3 and O4O_4, respectively, the circle with center at AA and radius AXAX, the circle with center at BB and radius BXBX, the circle with center at CC and radius CXCX and the circle with center at DD and radius DXDX. Determine the value of DXDX if there exists a circle which is tangent to all of the circles O1,O2,O3O_1, O_2, O_3 and O4O_4. Here we denote by YZYZ the length of the line segment YZYZ.

Solution

Let DX=dDX = d. Choose xy-coordinate axis in such a way that X=(0,0)X = (0,0), A=(5,0)A = (5,0), B=(0,6)B = (0,6), C=(20,0)C = (-20,0), D=(0,d)D = (0,-d) are satisfied. Let Γ\Gamma be the circle tangent to each of the circles O1,O2,O3,O4O_1, O_2, O_3, O_4, and let P=(x,y)P = (x, y) be the center of Γ\Gamma and rr be its radius. Since the circle O1O_1 touches the circle Γ\Gamma tangentially from inside, we see that AP=r5AP = r - 5, which means that (x5)2+y2=(r5)2(x - 5)^2 + y^2 = (r - 5)^2 is satisfied. Simplifying this, we obtain
r2x2y2=10(rx). r^2 - x^2 - y^2 = 10(r - x).
If we use the fact that each of the circles O2,O3,O4O_2, O_3, O_4 also touches the circle Γ\Gamma tangentially from inside, we obtain in the same way as above,
r2x2y2=40(r+x),r2x2y2=12(ry),r2x2y2=2d(r+y). r^2 - x^2 - y^2 = 40(r + x), \quad r^2 - x^2 - y^2 = 12(r - y), \quad r^2 - x^2 - y^2 = 2d(r + y).
Consequently, if we let t=r2x2y2t = r^2 - x^2 - y^2, then we have
rx=t10,r+x=t40,ry=t12,r+y=t2d. r - x = \frac{t}{10}, \quad r + x = \frac{t}{40}, \quad r - y = \frac{t}{12}, \quad r + y = \frac{t}{2d}.
Since 2r=(rx)+(r+x)=(ry)+(r+y)2r = (r-x) + (r+x) = (r-y) + (r+y), we obtain
2r=t(110+140)=t(112+12d), 2r = t \left( \frac{1}{10} + \frac{1}{40} \right) = t \left( \frac{1}{12} + \frac{1}{2d} \right),
from which we get, as r0r \neq 0, 110+140=112+12d\frac{1}{10} + \frac{1}{40} = \frac{1}{12} + \frac{1}{2d}. Thus we obtain d=12d = 12 for the desired answer for the problem.

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