Let be the set of ordered pairs such that is the midpoint of and some point on the circle . What is the largest possible distance between any two points in ?
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Let us write the required midpoint formulae as:
x = 2 − 3 + k ; y = 2 2 + [ 1 ± 4 − ( k + 3 ) 2 ]
where k ∈ R . If we solve for k in terms of x in the first equation and then substitute it into the second, we now end up with:
y = 2 2 + [ 1 ± 4 − ( ( 2 x + 3 ) + 3 ) 2 ] = 2 3 ± 4 − ( 2 x + 6 ) 2 ;
or 2 y − 3 = 4 − 4 ( x + 3 ) 2 ;
or ( 2 y − 3 ) 2 = 4 − 4 ( x + 3 ) 2 ;
or 4 ( y − 2 3 ) 2 = 4 − 4 ( x + 3 ) 2 ;
or ( x + 3 ) 2 + ( y − 2 3 ) 2 = 1
So the locus of G is just a unit circle ⇒ the maximum distance between any two points ∈ G = 2 .