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Geometry Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Find the answer

3. Determine the center of a circle with radius rr, which intersects every circle passing through the points (1,0)(-1,0) and (1,0)(1,0) at a right angle of 9090^{\circ}.

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

Solution. Two circles intersect at an angle α\alpha if the angle formed by the tangents at the intersection point is equal to α\alpha.

If a given circle passes through the points (1,0)(-1,0) and (1,0)(1,0), then its center lies on the yy-axis. Let's denote this center by O(0,q)O(0, q). Then the equation of an arbitrary circle kk passing through the points (1,0)(-1,0) and (1,0)(1,0) is

!

k:x2+(yq)2=q2+1 k: \quad x^{2}+(y-q)^{2}=q^{2}+1

i.e., k((0,q),q2+1)k\left((0, q), \sqrt{q^{2}+1}\right). Furthermore, two circles k1(O1,r1)k_{1}\left(O_{1}, r_{1}\right) and k2(O2,r2)k_{2}\left(O_{2}, r_{2}\right) intersect at an angle of 9090^{\circ} if and only if

r12+r22=O1O22 r_{1}^{2}+r_{2}^{2}={\overline{O_{1} O_{2}}}^{2}

Let the center of the circle with radius r>0r>0 that intersects an arbitrary circle of the form (1) at an angle of 9090^{\circ} be at the point (a,b)(a, b). From (2) we have

r2+q2+1=a2+(bq)2, i.e., r2+1=a2+b22bq r^{2}+q^{2}+1=a^{2}+(b-q)^{2} \text {, i.e., } r^{2}+1=a^{2}+b^{2}-2 b q

The last equality must hold for every qq, which is possible only if b=0b=0. Now, substituting into the last equation, we get a=±r2+1a= \pm \sqrt{r^{2}+1}. Finally, the center of the desired circle is (r2+1,0)\left(-\sqrt{r^{2}+1}, 0\right) or (r2+1,0)\left(\sqrt{r^{2}+1}, 0\right).

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.