Problem:
Three circles of radii 6, 3, 2 respectively are given. and are externally tangent at , while is internally tangent to both other circles, respectively at and . Determine the radius of the circle circumscribed about .
Problem:
Three circles of radii 6, 3, 2 respectively are given. and are externally tangent at , while is internally tangent to both other circles, respectively at and . Determine the radius of the circle circumscribed about .
Pick one
Solution:
The answer is . Let be the centers of respectively. Since are externally tangent, the distance equals the sum of the radii of , that is . Similarly, the distance equals the difference of the radii of and (and is thus equal to ), and the distance equals . Since , the triangle is right-angled at , and it follows that the triangle is an isosceles right triangle.
Now let be the center of the circle circumscribed about . The triangle is certainly isosceles on base ; we want to show that it is also right-angled at , that is, that is the reflection of with respect to , hence that .
We have (central angle subtending the same arc as , but on the opposite side); on the other hand, a quick angle computation gives , which precisely implies the desired orthogonality.