3. Determine the center of a circle with radius , which intersects every circle passing through the points and at a right angle of .
Solution
Solution. Two circles intersect at an angle if the angle formed by the tangents at the intersection point is equal to .
If a given circle passes through the points and , then its center lies on the -axis. Let's denote this center by . Then the equation of an arbitrary circle passing through the points and is
!
i.e., . Furthermore, two circles and intersect at an angle of if and only if
Let the center of the circle with radius that intersects an arbitrary circle of the form (1) at an angle of be at the point . From (2) we have
The last equality must hold for every , which is possible only if . Now, substituting into the last equation, we get . Finally, the center of the desired circle is or .
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