Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 4 / 161 of 340 #421 of 1964

Problem 421

AMC 12 late, AIME early
Geometry Difficulty 4.8 Find the answer

Draw a circle through the given point, perpendicular to the two given circles.

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The source for this one didn't record the answer, so there is nothing to check what you type against. Work it on paper and mark yourself against the solution below.

Official solution

Upon inversion with the center at a given point AA, the desired circle will transform into a line perpendicular to the images of the given circles S1S_{1} and S2S_{2}, i.e., into a line connecting the centers S1S_{1}^{*} and S2S_{2}^{*}. Thus, the desired circle is the image under this inversion of any line passing through the centers S1S_{1}^{*} and 2 2 *\text{2 2 *}.

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