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Geometry Difficulty 6.4 National Olympiad Prove it Ireland

Given are two circles ΩP\Omega_P and ΩQ\Omega_Q which intersect at two distinct points AA and BB. Construct a circle Ω\Omega that contains ΩP\Omega_P and ΩQ\Omega_Q and which is tangent to ΩP\Omega_P and ΩQ\Omega_Q at points PP and QQ, respectively, such that PP, AA, QQ are collinear. Justify your construction.

Solution

Description of the construction. Let OPO_P and OQO_Q denote the centres of the circles ΩP\Omega_P and ΩQ\Omega_Q, respectively. Draw the circle centre AA that passes through BB and let KK and LL be its intersection points with ΩP\Omega_P and ΩQ\Omega_Q, respectively. Next construct the angle bisector of KBL\angle KBL, then the perpendicular to this angle bisector that passes through AA. Let PP and QQ be the points where this perpendicular intersects ΩP\Omega_P and ΩQ\Omega_Q, respectively. Let MM be the point where the lines POPPO_P and QOQQO_Q meet. The circle centre MM that passes through PP is the required circle.

Justification of the construction. Let ω\omega be the circle with centre AA that passes through BB. When we invert the two given circles in ω\omega, we obtain the lines BKBK and BLBL, where KK and LL are the intersection points of ω\omega with ΩP\Omega_P and ΩQ\Omega_Q, respectively. The required circle inverts to a circle which contains AA and which is tangent to BKBK and BLBL. The points of contact of the inverted circle with BKBK and BLBL, say PP' and QQ', are the inverses of PP and QQ, respectively. Because AA is collinear with every pair of inverse points, P,A,QP, A, Q are collinear exactly when P,A,QP', A, Q' are collinear. In this case, P,P,A,Q,QP, P', A, Q, Q' are collinear. Finally, because PQP'Q' is perpendicular to the angle bisector of angle KBL\angle KBL, the points PP and QQ must be on the perpendicular to this angle bisector that passes through AA.

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