In the regular tetrahedron above, extend the diagram to an infinite number of inscribed spheres. Along each radii and of the circumscribed sphere the inscribed stacked spheres are tangent to each other.
Let be the sum of all the spheres.
if and the length of a edge of the above regular tetrahedron can be expressed as , where and are coprime positive integers, find .
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Using the above diagram ⟹ R 1 2 3 a = x 3 2 ⟹ x = 2 2 R 1
Right △ C O P ⟹ 9 R 1 2 = 3 2 a 2 − 2 3 2 a R 1 + R 1 2 ⟹
4 R 1 2 + 3 2 a R 1 − 3 1 a 2 = 0 ⟹ R 1 = 2 6 a dropping the negative root.
H 1 = 3 2 and R 1 = 2 6 a ⟹ H 2 = H 1 − 2 R 1 = 6 a and H 1 H 2 = 2 ⟹
H 2 = 2 1 H 1 ⟹ R 2 = 2 1 R 1 ⟹ R 3 = 2 1 R 2 = 2 2 1 R 1 and in general
R n = ( 2 1 ) n − 1 R 1
Note here that 2 R 1 ∑ n = 1 ∞ R n = 4 R 1 = 4 ( 2 6 1 ) = 3 2 = H 1 .
R n = ( 2 1 ) n − 1 R 1 ⟹ V n = 3 4 π ( 8 1 ) n − 1 R 1 3
⟹ V v = 3 4 π R 1 3 ( ∑ n = 1 ∞ ( 8 1 ) n − 1 ) = 3 4 π R 1 3 ( 7 8 ) =
3 4 π ( 2 6 a ) 3 ( 7 8 ) = 3 4 π ( 8 ∗ 6 6 a 3 ) ( 7 8 ) = 6 3 6 2 π a 3 .
For the other three stacks let V d = V v − V 1 = π a 3 ( 6 3 6 2 − 3 4 ( 2 6 1 ) 3 )
= 6 π a 3 ( 6 3 2 − 3 6 1 ) = 2 5 2 6 π a 3 ⟹
3 V d = 8 4 6 π a 3 ⟹ V T = V v + 3 V d = 6 π a 3 ( 6 3 2 + 8 4 1 ) = 2 5 2 6 1 1 π a 3 = 6 π ⟹
a = 1 1 6 ∗ 2 5 2 = 1 1 3 3 ∗ 2 3 ∗ 7 ⟹ a = 6 3 1 1 7 = α 3 λ β ⟹ α + β + λ = 2 4