It's All Circles!

Level pending

All three circles above are tangent to each other and tangent to the horizontal line.

If the radius of the blue circle is R 1 R_{1} and the radius of the green circle is R 2 R_{2} , where R 1 > R 2 R_{1} > R_{2} ,

and the radius x x of the pink circle is x = ( R 1 R 2 ) 2 x = (\sqrt{R_{1}} - \sqrt{R_{2}})^2 and R 1 R 2 = a + b c \dfrac{R_{1}}{R_{2}} = \dfrac{a + \sqrt{b}}{c} ,

where a , b a,b and c c are coprime positive integers, find a + b + c a + b + c .


The answer is 10.

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1 solution

Rocco Dalto
May 23, 2020

Using the diagram above:

l 2 = ( R 1 + x ) 2 ( R 1 x ) 2 = 4 R 1 x l = 2 R 1 x l^2 = (R_{1} + x)^2 - (R_{1} - x)^2 = 4R_{1}x \implies l = 2\sqrt{R_{1}}\sqrt{x}

m 2 = ( R 2 + x ) 2 ( R 2 x ) 2 = 4 R 2 x m = 2 R 2 x m^2 = (R_{2} + x)^2 - (R_{2} - x)^2 = 4R_{2}x \implies m = 2\sqrt{R_{2}}\sqrt{x}

p 2 = ( R 1 + R 2 ) 2 ( R 1 R 2 ) 2 p = 2 R 1 R 2 p^2 = (R_{1} + R_{2})^2 - (R_{1} - R_{2})^2 \implies p = 2\sqrt{R_{1}R_{2}}

p = l + m p = l + m \implies

R 1 R 2 = ( R 1 + R 2 ) x \sqrt{R_{1}R_{2}} = (\sqrt{R_{1}} + \sqrt{R_{2}})\sqrt{x} \implies

x = R 1 R 2 ( R 1 + R 2 ) 2 = ( R 1 R 2 ) 2 x = \dfrac{R_{1}R_{2}}{(\sqrt{R_{1}} + \sqrt{R_{2}})^2} = (\sqrt{R_{1}} - \sqrt{R_{2}})^2 \implies R 1 R 2 = ( R 1 R 2 ) 2 = R 1 2 2 R 2 R 1 + R 2 2 R_{1}R_{2} = (R_{1} - R_{2})^2 = R_{1}^2 - 2R_{2}R_{1} + R_{2}^2

R 1 2 3 R 2 R 1 + R 2 2 = 0 R 1 = ( 3 ± 5 2 ) R 2 \implies R_{1}^2 - 3R_{2}R_{1} + R_{2}^2 = 0 \implies R_{1} = (\dfrac{3 \pm \sqrt{5}}{2})R_{2}

R 1 > R 2 R_{1} > R_{2} \therefore we drop R 1 = ( 3 5 2 ) R 2 R_{1} = (\dfrac{3 - \sqrt{5}}{2})R_{2} \implies

R 1 R 2 = 3 + 5 2 = a + b c a + b + c = 10 \dfrac{R_{1}}{R_{2}} = \dfrac{3 + \sqrt{5}}{2} = \dfrac{a + \sqrt{b}}{c} \implies a + b + c = \boxed{10} .

Note: R 1 R 2 = 3 + 5 2 = 1 + ϕ = ϕ 2 \dfrac{R_{1}}{R_{2}} = \dfrac{3 + \sqrt{5}}{2} = 1 + \phi = \phi^2 , where ϕ \phi is the golden ratio.

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