Tangent Circle

Geometry Level 5

Let A B C ABC be a triangle with sides A B = 7 AB=7 , B C = 11 BC=11 and C A = 12 CA=12 , and let ω a \omega_a be the circle tangent to A B AB , A C AC at the points D D , E E and internally tangent to the circumscribed circle A B C \odot ABC . What is the length of the segment A D AD ?

Details and Assumptions

Assuming that the length of the segment A D AD is the simple fraction a b \frac{a}{b} , type the sum a + b a+b as your answer.


The answer is 33.

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2 solutions

A synthetic solution:

Let X be point of tangency of both circles. Let Y and Z be midpoints of minor arcs A B AB and A C AC respectively. Now Y X A B = D YX\cap AB = D , A C Z X = E AC\cap ZX = E , and Z B Y C = I ZB\cap YC = I where I I is incenter of A B C \triangle ABC . Thus Pascal's on cyclic hexagon A C Y X Z B ACYXZB implies points D , I , E D, I, E collinear.

From this it becomes a routine length chase. A D = A E AD=AE and A I D E AI \perp DE so we can construct P as shown in the diagram and we have r = ( s a ) ( s b ) ( s c ) s = 32 5 r=\sqrt{\frac{(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)}{s}}=\sqrt{\frac{32}{5}} and A P = A B + A C B C 2 = 4 AP=\frac{AB+AC-BC}{2}=4 . so A I 2 = r 2 + A P 2 = 112 5 = A P A E = 4 A D AI^{2}=r^{2}+AP^{2}=\frac{112}{5}=AP\cdot AE = 4AD .

Thus A D = 28 5 AD=\frac{28}{5} , and 28 + 5 = 33 28+5=33 .

Yong See Foo
May 7, 2015

I shall show a quick solution via flip inversion: We invert the diagram wrt circle centered at A A with radius A B A C \sqrt{AB\cdot AC} , and then reflect it across the A A -angle bisector. Then B B would map to C C , C C would map to B B , line A B AB maps to line A C AC , line A C AC maps to line A B AB , and the circumcircle of A B C ABC is mapped to line B C BC . Tangency is preserved so ω A \omega_A would map to the A A -excircle and suppose its tangency point with line B C , C A , A B BC, CA, AB well be X X , Y Y , Z Z respectively. Note that D , E D,E map to Y , Z Y,Z respectively. Then A B + A X = A B + B Z = A Z = A Y = A C + C Y = A C + C X , AB+AX=AB+BZ=AZ=AY=AC+CY=AC+CX, so we know the length of A A to X X along the perimeter of triangle A B C ABC will be half the perimeter i.e. 15 15 , which is also the length of line segment A Y AY . Now by inversion A Y A D = A B A C = 84 AY\cdot AD=AB\cdot AC=84 and hence A D = 28 5 AD=\frac{28}{5} and the answer is 33 \boxed{33} .

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