Twice as Normal

Geometry Level 4

A circle of radius 1 whose center is on the y y -axis is normal to the parabola y = x 2 y = x^2 as shown in the figure above. Find the y y -coordinate axis displacement from the center of the circle.

Give the answer to 5 decimal places.


The answer is 0.39039.

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1 solution

Guilherme Niedu
Nov 18, 2016

The parabola equation is y 1 = x 2 y_1=x^2 while the circle equation (the upper part) is y 2 = 1 x 2 + c y_2 = \sqrt{1 - x^2} + c , being c c the y y coordinate of the circle center.

In the intersection point, the intersection is normal. That means that d y 1 d x = 1 d y 2 d x \frac{dy_1}{dx} = \frac{-1}{\frac{dy_2}{dx}} . Or:

2 x = 1 x 1 x 2 2x = \frac{-1}{\frac{-x}{\sqrt{1-x^2}}}

2 x 2 = 1 x 2 2x^2 = \sqrt{1-x^2}

4 x 4 + x 1 = 0 4x^4 + x - 1 = 0

Solving for bhaskara, and since the intersection point iss both a solution for the parabola and the circle x 2 = y = 0.390388203... x^2 = y = 0.390388203... and x = 0.624810534... x = 0.624810534...

Pluggin this in the circle equation y 2 = 1 x 2 + c y_2 = \sqrt{1 - x^2} + c leads to c = 0.390388203 c = -0.390388203 . Since the displacement is the absolut value, out answer is 0.390388203 \fbox{0.390388203}

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