Two congruent black circles are placed diagonally in a unit square such that they touch each other at the center of the square. We want to place two red circles along the other diagonal such that they touch the sides of the square and the two black circles as shown in the figure above. Find the radius of each of the red circles. If the radius is , then enter as your answer.
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Let the radius of the large congruent circle be r . Considering the diagonal for top-left vertex to bottom-right vertex of the square, we note that:
2 r + 2 2 r = 2 ⟹ r = 2 + 2 1 = 1 − 2 1
Now consider the other diagonal:
2 2 R + 2 ( r + R ) 2 − r 2 2 R + 2 ( 2 r R + R 2 ) 4 r R + 2 R 2 4 r R + 2 R 2 2 R 2 − 4 ( 1 + r ) R + 1 2 R 2 − ( 8 − 2 2 ) R + 1 ⟹ R ⌊ 1 0 4 R ⌋ = 2 = 1 = 1 − 2 R = 4 R 2 − 4 R + 1 = 0 = 0 = 2 − 2 1 ± 4 − 2 2 ≈ 0 . 2 1 0 5 0 = 2 1 0 5 Squaring both sides Note that r = 1 − 2 1 Since R < 1