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Geometry Difficulty 3.9 AMC 10/12 Find the answer United States

Problem:

Four circles with radii 1,2,31, 2, 3, and rr are externally tangent to one another. Compute rr. (No proof is necessary.)

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

Solution

Solution:

Let A,B,C,PA, B, C, P be the centers of the circles with radii 1,2,31, 2, 3, and rr, respectively. Then, ABCABC is a 33-44-55 right triangle. Using the law of cosines in PAB\triangle PAB yields
cosPAB=32+(1+r)2(2+r)223(1+r)=3r3(1+r) \cos \angle PAB = \frac{3^2 + (1 + r)^2 - (2 + r)^2}{2 \cdot 3 \cdot (1 + r)} = \frac{3 - r}{3(1 + r)}
Similarly,
cosPAC=42+(1+r)2(3+r)224(1+r)=2r2(1+r) \cos \angle PAC = \frac{4^2 + (1 + r)^2 - (3 + r)^2}{2 \cdot 4 \cdot (1 + r)} = \frac{2 - r}{2(1 + r)}
We can now use the equation (cosPAB)2+(cosPAC)2=1(\cos \angle PAB)^2 + (\cos \angle PAC)^2 = 1, which yields 0=23r2+132r36=(23r6)(r+6)0 = 23r^2 + 132r - 36 = (23r - 6)(r + 6), or r=6/23r = 6/23.

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