A circle is placed in x , y , z space with centre at ( 1 , 2 , 3 ) . If all three axes touch the circle's edge (but do not puncture the circle), what is the radius of the circle (correct to 3 decimal places)?
This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try
refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and,
finally, (c)
loading the
non-javascript version of this page
. We're sorry about the hassle.
I'd like to know of any other techniques people used to reach the answer... you could exploit the coplanarity of the points in a nicer way (see below)
This is really about solving the system of four equations
a
1
+
b
2
+
c
3
=
1
(
a
−
1
)
2
+
(
0
−
2
)
2
+
(
0
−
3
)
2
=
r
2
(
0
−
1
)
2
+
(
b
−
2
)
2
+
(
0
−
3
)
2
=
r
2
(
0
−
1
)
2
+
(
0
−
2
)
2
+
(
c
−
3
)
2
=
r
2
and there doesn't seem to be any nice way of solving this. One way would to find that
a
=
1
+
c
2
−
6
c
+
1
b
=
2
+
c
2
−
6
c
+
4
and then solve the following equation for c numerically
a 1 + b 2 + c 3 = 1
Once we have c = 7 . 2 9 7 1 8 4 8 7 . . . , we compute r = 4 . 8 4 4 1 5 0 8 9 . . .
Problem Loading...
Note Loading...
Set Loading...
Denote the points at which the circle touches the x , y and z axes as
( a , 0 , 0 ) , ( 0 , b , 0 ) and ( 0 , 0 , c ) respectively.
If the circle has radius r , then:
5 + ( c − 3 ) 2 = 1 0 + ( b − 2 ) 2
1 0 + ( b − 2 ) 2 = 1 3 + ( a − 1 ) 2
1 3 + ( a − 1 ) 2 = r .
Furthermore, if we denote the side lengths of the triangle formed
by joining ( a , 0 , 0 ) to ( 0 , b , 0 ) , ( 0 , b , 0 ) to ( 0 , 0 , c ) and ( 0 , 0 , c ) to
( a , 0 , 0 ) as A , B and C respectively, we know that:
A = a 2 + b 2
B = b 2 + c 2
C = c 2 + a 2 .
Finally, the radius of the circumcircle of the triangle with side
lengths A , B and C is given by the formula:
r = ( A + B + C ) ( A + B − C ) ( A − B + C ) ( B − A + C ) A B C .
Substituting A , B and C in terms of a , b and c results in the formation
of a fourth equation relating a , b , c and r .
So we have a system of four equations and four variables which
can be solved to yield r ≈ 4 . 8 4 4 1 5 0 8 8 7 .
So, rounded to 3 decimal places, r ≈ 4 . 8 4 4 .