Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 3.5 AMC 10/12 Find the answer Italy

Two circles C1C_{1} and C2C_{2} with centers AA and BB are externally tangent at TT. Let BDBD be a segment tangent to C1C_{1} at DD, and let TCTC be the segment tangent to both at TT with CBDC \in BD. If ATAT has length 80 and BTBT has length 90, what is the length of CDCD?

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

Solution

The answer is 48. ATAT is a radius of the circle C1C_{1}; since ADAD is also one, it too measures 80. Moreover the angle AD^BA \widehat{D} B is right; by the Pythagorean theorem then BDBD measures (80+90)2802=150\sqrt{(80+90)^{2}-80^{2}}=150. But the triangles ABDABD and BTCBTC are similar (they are right triangles and share the angle at BB), so BD:BT=BA:BCBD : BT = BA : BC and BCBC measures 102, so that the length of CDCD is 48.

Figure 1

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.