On the coordinate plane, and are two points on circle and ellipse respectively.
Then has the maximum value . Submit .
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Suppose we know Q . Then the point P on the circle that maximizes P Q is a point such that P Q is normal to the circle at P . This means that it goes through the center of the circle, which is ( 0 , 1 ) .
The same reasoning holds true if we fix P ; the point Q on the ellipse that maximizes P Q is a point such that P Q is normal to the ellipse at Q . If Q = ( x , y ) , the slope of the tangent line to the ellipse at Q is − x / 4 y by implicit differentiation, so the line P Q must have slope 4 y / x .
Putting these together, we get x 4 y = x − 0 y − 1 , so either x = 0 or y = − 3 1 . If x = 0 , the maximum distance P Q is 2 + 3 . We will see that we can do better than this in the other case.
If y = − 3 1 then x = ± 3 4 2 ; wlog take x = 3 4 2 . So Q = ( 3 4 2 , − 3 1 ) .
Then we know the slope of P Q and its y -intercept, so the line P Q is given by the equation y = − 2 1 x + 1 . This intersects the circle at the points ( 2 , 0 ) and ( − 2 , 2 ) . The latter clearly gives a larger distance than the former, so P = ( − 2 , 2 ) . Computing the distance P Q gives A = 3 7 , so that ⌊ 1 0 0 0 0 A ⌋ = 4 0 4 1 4 .