Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 7.7 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Baltic Way

Problem:

The following construction is used for training astronauts: A circle C2C_{2} of radius 2R2R rolls along the inside of another, fixed circle C1C_{1} of radius nRnR, where nn is an integer greater than 22. The astronaut is fastened to a third circle C3C_{3} of radius RR which rolls along the inside of circle C2C_{2} in such a way that the touching point of the circles C2C_{2} and C3C_{3} remains at maximum distance from the touching point of the circles C1C_{1} and C2C_{2} at all times (see Figure 3).

How many revolutions (relative to the ground) does the astronaut perform together with the circle C3C_{3} while the circle C2C_{2} completes one full lap around the inside of circle C1C_{1}?

Figure 1
Figure 3

Solution

Solution:

Consider a circle C4C_{4} with radius RR that rolls inside C2C_{2} in such a way that the two circles always touch in the point opposite to the touching point of C2C_{2} and C3C_{3}. Then the circles C3C_{3} and C4C_{4} follow each other and make the same number of revolutions, and so we will assume that the astronaut is inside the circle C4C_{4} instead. But the touching point of C2C_{2} and C4C_{4} coincides with the touching point of C1C_{1} and C2C_{2}. Hence the circles C4C_{4} and C1C_{1} always touch each other, and we can disregard the circle C2C_{2} completely.

Suppose the circle C4C_{4} rolls inside C1C_{1} in counterclockwise direction. Then the astronaut revolves in clockwise direction. If the circle C4C_{4} had rolled along a straight line of length 2πnR2\pi nR (instead of the inside of C1C_{1}), the circle C4C_{4} would have made nn revolutions during its movement. As the path of the circle C4C_{4} makes a 360360^{\circ} counterclockwise turn itself, the total number of revolutions of the astronaut relative to the ground is n1n-1.

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