Bounded Balls

Geometry Level 4

Four balls in the sketch above are all mutually tangent to one another. If the radii of the three larger balls are 69 , 46 , and 23 , what is the radius of the fourth ball?


The answer is 6.

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2 solutions

This involves an application of Descartes' theorem . From equation (2) in the link, noting that the curvature k k of a circle of radius r r is given by k = 1 r k = \dfrac{1}{r} , and taking the positive root to find the curvature k 4 k_{4} of the inscribed circle, we have that

k 4 = 1 69 + 1 46 + 1 23 + 2 1 69 46 + 1 69 23 + 1 46 23 = k_{4} = \dfrac{1}{69} + \dfrac{1}{46} + \dfrac{1}{23} + 2\sqrt{\dfrac{1}{69*46} + \dfrac{1}{69*23} + \dfrac{1}{46*23}} =

1 23 ( 1 3 + 1 2 + 1 ) + 2 23 1 6 + 1 3 + 1 2 = 1 23 11 6 + 2 23 = 1 23 23 6 = 1 6 \dfrac{1}{23}*\left(\dfrac{1}{3} + \dfrac{1}{2} + 1\right) + \dfrac{2}{23}\sqrt{\dfrac{1}{6} + \dfrac{1}{3} + \dfrac{1}{2}} = \dfrac{1}{23}*\dfrac{11}{6} + \dfrac{2}{23} = \dfrac{1}{23}*\dfrac{23}{6} = \dfrac{1}{6} .

Thus the radius of the fourth ball is 1 k 4 = 6 \dfrac{1}{k_{4}} = \boxed{6} .

This is just delightful! Thankyou!

Pi Han Goh - 5 years, 4 months ago

Excellent execution of your choice for a solution!

W Rose - 5 years, 4 months ago
汶良 林
Feb 3, 2016

Excellent and economical solution to this problem!

W Rose - 5 years, 4 months ago

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