Dew Drops

Geometry Level 4

Seven unit circles are arranged in the center with eighteen smaller circles surrounding them. Find the radius of the smaller circles if all neighboring circles are tangent to one another.

Give your answer to 3 decimal places.


The answer is 0.626.

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1 solution

Marta Reece
Mar 23, 2017

In the right triangle O E A OEA we have A E = 1 AE=1 and O A = 2 OA=2 so A O E = 3 0 \angle AOE=30^\circ and as a result E A F = 12 0 \angle EAF=120^\circ .

In triangle A E D AED the sides are A E = 1 , A D = 1 + R AE=1, AD=1+R and the angle a = a r c c o s ( 1 1 + R ) a=arccos(\frac{1}{1+R}) .

Triangles A D G , A G C , ADG, AGC, and A C F ACF are all congruent. The angle b = a r c s i n ( R 1 + R ) b=arcsin(\frac{R}{1+R}) .

The angle E A F = a + 3 b = a r c c o s ( 1 1 + R ) + 3 a r c s i n ( R 1 + R ) = 120. EAF=a+3b= arccos(\frac{1}{1+R})+3 arcsin(\frac{R}{1+R})=120.

This is an equation in R R with the solution being R 0.626 R\approx0.626 .

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