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Geometry Difficulty 6.8 National olympiad Prove it Iran

Two circles in the space are called linking if they intersect at two points or they are interlocked. Find a necessary and sufficient condition for four distinct points AA, BB, AA', BB' in the space such that every two different circles passing through AA, BB and the other passing through AA', BB' respectively are linking.

Figure 1

Solution

The points should be on a circle (or line) and AA, BB should separate AA', BB' on it. To prove necessity, first suppose that the points are not coplanar. Then there exist two parallel planes passing through AA, BB and AA', BB' respectively. Any two circles in these planes are not linking. So the points should be coplanar.

Now suppose BB' is not on the circumcircle of ABAABA' (which can be a line). So we can slightly change the circle to find a circle passing through AA, BB such that AA', BB' are both outside or both inside it. Now, this circle is not linking with the circle with diameter ABA'B' orthogonal to the plane containing the points.

So the points should be on a circle (or line). Now, suppose AA, BB do not separate AA', BB' on the circle. If we change the circle slightly, still passing through AA, BB, then AA', BB' will be both inside or both outside the new circle and we arrive to a contradiction like the previous case. So, the necessity of the condition is proved.

To prove sufficiency, Let CC, CC' be two different circles passing through AA, BB and AA', BB' respectively. Let PP, PP' be the planes containing CC, CC' respectively. If the points are collinear, then CPC' \cap P is consisted of a point inside CC and a point outside CC. So CC, CC' are interlocked. So, suppose the points are on a circle. Let MM be the intersection of the segments ABAB and ABA'B'. We have MAMB=MAMBMA \cdot MB = MA' \cdot MB'. Let

l=PPl = P \cap P' which passes through MM. MM is inside CC, so ll intersects CC at two points like X,YX,Y and MM is between X,YX,Y. Similarly, ll intersects CC' at X,YX',Y' namely, and MM is between X,YX',Y'. Suppose X,XX,X' are in one side of MM. We have
MXMY=MAMB=MAMB=MXMY MX \cdot MY = MA \cdot MB = MA' \cdot MB' = MX' \cdot MY'
So if MXMXMX \le MX', then MYMYMY \ge MY' and vice versa. So the points of CP={X,Y}C' \cap P = \{X',Y'\} are in different sides of CC or both are on CC. So C,CC,C' are linking and sufficiency of the condition is proved. \square

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