Two circles and cross one another at points and . The tangent to at meets again at , the tangent to at meets again at , and the line separates the points and . Let be the circle externally tangent to , externally tangent to , tangent to the line , and lying on the same side of as . Show that the circles and intercept equal segments on one of the tangents to through .
Solution
Invert with respect to a circle centred at and denote by the image of a point under this inversion. The circles and invert into straight lines and , and the tangents at into lines through , parallel to and . The line inverts into the circle , and 'CC' separating and is equivalent to ' lying inside circle . So is a parallelogram, obtuse-angled at and . Draw the line through , parallel to , meeting the lines and at and , respectively. Then , and are the midpoints of the sides of the triangle , and the line is the inverse of the line through on which and intercept equal segments. The circle is the nine-point circle of the triangle ; by Feuerbach's theorem, it touches the incircle of that triangle. Since this incircle is the inverse of the circle in the original configuration, touching and externally and the line , the conclusion follows.