Consider a circle with radius 1 and center O . Points A , B are on the circumference such that ∠ A O B = 3 π .
What is the radius of the largest circle that can be inscribed in sector A O B ?
Inspiration - I misread a problem that Justin told me from his recent math competition . It used 6 π , which had ugly calculations. This had a much simpler solution.
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NIce. That's thinking "outside the circle". :)
Where's inspiration?
I also did the same way!!!!
I did the same thing.
I got the same idea
Let P be the center of the radius r circle inscribed in sector A O B , and let Q be the point where this circle touches O A .
Then Δ P Q O is right-angled at Q with P Q = r , P O = 1 − r and ∠ Q O P = 6 π . We then have that
sin ( ∠ Q O P ) = P O P Q ⟹ 2 1 = 1 − r r ⟹ 1 − r = 2 r ⟹ r = 3 1 = 0 . 3 3 3
to 3 decimal places.
There is another answer that is slightly more immediate, though based on the same idea.
I misread Justin's problem, and solved this much easier case.
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I'm guessing that you're thinking of drawing adjacent sectors with circles inscribed, forming an equilateral triangle using the centers of the inscribed circles and original circle as vertices, and then noting that two sides of this triangle have length 1 − r and another 2 r . Thus 1 − r = 2 r → r = 3 1 .
I'm curious what Justin's inspirational problem was; I can't find it on his page.
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Oh, it was from a math contest that he took, where the angle was given as 6 π , which is why there's no "Inspiration" link. I misread it and thought it was 3 π , which leads to this "two line" result.
Actually it's easier than that. Let me add my solution.
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Let the 2 circles be tangential at point T . Draw the tangent at T , and call the line ℓ . Let A ′ , B ′ be the intersection of ℓ with O A and O B respectively.
Observe that the small circle is the incircle of the equilaterial triangle O A ′ B ′ , which has height equal to the radius of the circle, IE 1 . Hence, the radius of the incircle is 3 1 .
This only works out because the given angle is 6 0 ∘ . Otherwise, it will require more work, like in Brian's solution