Clever coordinate geometry

Geometry Level 2

A line is tangent to the circle x 2 + y 2 = 4 x^2 + y^2 = 4 and passes through the point ( 5 , 0 ) (5, 0) . If the line is tangent at ( m , n ) (m, n) , find the value of m m .

1 1 4 5 \frac{4}{5} 6 5 \frac{6}{5} 3 5 \frac{3}{5}

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3 solutions

Label points O ( 0 , 0 ) , P ( m , n ) , Q ( m , 0 ) , R ( 5 , 0 ) . O(0,0), P(m,n), Q(m,0), R(5,0). Then since P R PR is tangent to the given radius 2 2 circle, we have that Δ O P R \Delta OPR and Δ O Q P \Delta OQP are similar right triangles. By virtue of this similarity we have that

O Q O P = O P O R m 2 = 2 5 m = 4 5 . \dfrac{OQ}{OP} = \dfrac{OP}{OR} \Longrightarrow \dfrac{m}{2} = \dfrac{2}{5} \Longrightarrow \boxed{m = \dfrac{4}{5}}.

Lucas Maia
Sep 11, 2015

To solve the problem you nave to find the angular coefficient of the line.

y = a x + b y=ax+b

Using the point (5,0), we know that 0=5a+b, so b=-5a. Now we have y = a ( x 5 ) y = a(x-5)

Now using in the circumference equation we have:

x 2 + y 2 = 4 x 2 + [ a ( x 5 ) ] 2 = 4 x^2 + y^2=4 \longrightarrow x^2 + [a(x-5)]^2=4

( a 2 + 1 ) x 2 ( 10 a 2 ) x + 25 a 2 4 = 0 (a^2 +1)x^2 -(10a^2)x +25a^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.

100 a 4 4 ( a 2 + 1 ) ( 25 a 2 4 ) = 0 100 a 4 100 a 4 + 16 a 2 100 a 2 + 16 = 0 a 2 = 4 / 21 100a^4 -4(a^2 +1)(25a^2-4)=0 \longrightarrow 100a^4 -100a^4 +16a^2 -100a^2 +16=0 \longrightarrow a^2=4/21

Using that

m = b 2 a = 10 a 2 2 ( a 2 + 1 ) = 10 ( 4 21 ) 2 ( 4 21 + 1 ) = 4 5 m= -\frac{b}{2a} = -\frac{-10a^2}{2(a^2+1)} = \frac{10(\frac{4}{21})}{2(\frac{4}{21} +1)} = \boxed{\frac{4}{5}}

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 ) (0,5) for an example.

MD Omur Faruque - 5 years, 9 months ago
Aakash Khandelwal
Sep 15, 2015

T=0 Therefore xm+yn=4 since it passes through (5,0) m= 0.8

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