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Geometry Difficulty 6.3 National olympiad Prove it China

A circle with center OO and radius RR is drawn on a paper, and AA is a given point in the circle with OA=aOA = a. Fold the paper to make a point AA' on the circumference coincident with point AA, then a crease line is left on the paper. Find out the set of all points on such crease lines, when AA' goes through every point on the circumference.

Solution

Establish an xyxy-coordinate system as in the diagram with A(a,0)A(a, 0) given. Then the crease line MNMN is the perpendicular bisector of segment AAAA' when AA' (RcosaR\cos a, RsinaR\sin a) is made coincident with AA by folding the paper. Let P(x,y)P(x, y) be any point on MNMN, then PA=PA|PA'| = |PA|. That is

Figure 1

(xRcosa)2+(yRsina)2=(xa)2+y2.(x - R\cos a)^2 + (y - R\sin a)^2 = (x - a)^2 + y^2.

Then
xcosx+ysinax2+y2=R2a2+2ax2Rx2+y2. \frac{x\cos x + y\sin a}{\sqrt{x^2 + y^2}} = \frac{R^2 - a^2 + 2ax}{2R\sqrt{x^2 + y^2}}.

We get
sin(θ+a)=R2a2+2ax2Rx2+y2, \sin(\theta + a) = \frac{R^2 - a^2 + 2ax}{2R\sqrt{x^2 + y^2}},
where
sinθ=xx2+y2,cosθ=yx2+y2. \sin \theta = \frac{x}{\sqrt{x^2 + y^2}}, \quad \cos \theta = \frac{y}{\sqrt{x^2 + y^2}}.
So
R2a2+2ax2Rx2+y21. \left| \frac{R^2 - a^2 + 2ax}{2R\sqrt{x^2 + y^2}} \right| \le 1.
Squaring both sides, we get
(2xa)2R2+4y2R2a21. \frac{(2x-a)^2}{R^2} + \frac{4y^2}{R^2 - a^2} \ge 1.
So the set we want consists of all of the points on the border of or outside the ellipse (2xa)2R2+4y2R2a2=1\frac{(2x-a)^2}{R^2} + \frac{4y^2}{R^2 - a^2} = 1.

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