A line is tangent to the circle x 2 + y 2 = 4 and passes through the point ( 5 , 0 ) . If the line is tangent at ( m , n ) , find the value of m .
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To solve the problem you nave to find the angular coefficient of the line.
y = a x + b
Using the point (5,0), we know that 0=5a+b, so b=-5a. Now we have y = a ( x − 5 )
Now using in the circumference equation we have:
x 2 + y 2 = 4 ⟶ x 2 + [ a ( x − 5 ) ] 2 = 4
( a 2 + 1 ) x 2 − ( 1 0 a 2 ) x + 2 5 a 2 − 4 = 0
Because the line is tangent to circumference, the equation must have just one solution and the discriminant of the quadratic must be 0.
1 0 0 a 4 − 4 ( a 2 + 1 ) ( 2 5 a 2 − 4 ) = 0 ⟶ 1 0 0 a 4 − 1 0 0 a 4 + 1 6 a 2 − 1 0 0 a 2 + 1 6 = 0 ⟶ a 2 = 4 / 2 1
Using that
m = − 2 a b = − 2 ( a 2 + 1 ) − 1 0 a 2 = 2 ( 2 1 4 + 1 ) 1 0 ( 2 1 4 ) = 5 4
Just because the line is tangent to the circle doesn't necessarily decide that the quadratic will have only one root. It'll have 2 roots if the point we're drawing the tangent from doesn't lie on the X-axis.
Consider, ( 0 , 5 ) for an example.
T=0 Therefore xm+yn=4 since it passes through (5,0) m= 0.8
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Label points O ( 0 , 0 ) , P ( m , n ) , Q ( m , 0 ) , R ( 5 , 0 ) . Then since P R is tangent to the given radius 2 circle, we have that Δ O P R and Δ O Q P are similar right triangles. By virtue of this similarity we have that
O P O Q = O R O P ⟹ 2 m = 5 2 ⟹ m = 5 4 .