Problem:
Points , , and lie on a line in that order such that and . Circles , , and have , , and as diameters. Circle is externally tangent to and at and respectively, and is internally tangent to . Compute the circumradius of triangle .
Problem:
Points , , and lie on a line in that order such that and . Circles , , and have , , and as diameters. Circle is externally tangent to and at and respectively, and is internally tangent to . Compute the circumradius of triangle .
Solution:
Let the center of be for and let denote the center of . Then , , and are collinear, as are , , and . Denote by the point of tangency between and ; then , , and are collinear. Writing for the radius of we have , , . Now since and , we apply Stewart's theorem:
We find . Now the key observation is that the circumcircle of triangle is the incircle of triangle . We easily compute the sides of to be , , and . By Heron's formula, the area of is , but the semiperimeter is , so the desired radius is .