Soddy-Gosset comes to the help

Geometry Level pending

Three spheres of radii 5 , 7 , 10 5, 7, 10 are placed on a flat table, tangent to each other. We want to place a tiny sphere in between them that is tangent to each of the three spheres, as well as the table. What is the radius of this tiny sphere?


The answer is 2.3524.

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1 solution

As we can see here , Descartes' Circle Theorem can be generalised to n n dimensions. This is Soddy-Gosset theorem:

In n-dimensional Euclidean space, the maximum number of mutually tangent ( n 1 ) (n - 1) -spheres is n + 2 n + 2 . The curvatures k i {{k}_{i}} of these hyperspheres satisfy the relation n ( i = 1 n + 2 k i 2 ) = ( i = 1 n + 2 k i ) 2 n\left( \sum\limits_{i=1}^{n+2}{{{k}_{i}}^{2}} \right)={{\left( \sum\limits_{i=1}^{n+2}{{{k}_{i}}} \right)}^{2}}

We can consider the plane as a sphere of infinite radius (i.e. 0 curvature) and simply apply Soddy-Gosset theorem for n = 3 n=3 :

3 ( i = 1 5 k i 2 ) = ( i = 1 5 k i ) 2 3 { ( 1 5 ) 2 + ( 1 7 ) 2 + ( 1 10 ) 2 + ( 0 ) 2 + ( 1 r ) 2 } = ( 1 5 + 1 7 + 1 10 + 0 + 1 r ) 2 3 ( 69 980 + 1 r 2 ) = ( 31 70 + 1 r ) 2 37 r 2 2170 r + 4900 = 0 r 2.3524 or r 56.296 \begin{aligned} 3\left( \sum\limits_{i=1}^{5}{{{k}_{i}}^{2}} \right)={{\left( \sum\limits_{i=1}^{5}{{{k}_{i}}} \right)}^{2}} & \Rightarrow 3\left\{ {{\left( \frac{1}{5} \right)}^{2}}+{{\left( \frac{1}{7} \right)}^{2}}+{{\left( \frac{1}{10} \right)}^{2}}+{{\left( 0 \right)}^{2}}+{{\left( \frac{1}{r} \right)}^{2}} \right\}={{\left( \frac{1}{5}+\frac{1}{7}+\frac{1}{10}+0+\frac{1}{r} \right)}^{2}} \\ & \Leftrightarrow 3\left( \frac{69}{980}+\frac{1}{{{r}^{2}}} \right)={{\left( \frac{31}{70}+\frac{1}{r} \right)}^{2}} \\ & \Leftrightarrow 37{{r}^{2}}-2170r+4900=0 \\ & \Leftrightarrow r\approx 2.3524\text{ or }r\approx 56.296 \\ \end{aligned} Accepted solution for our tiny sphere, r 2.3524 r\approx \boxed{2.3524} .

(Hosam, the title of your problem is a real spoiler!)

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