1983 AIME Problems/Problem 14: Difference between revisions
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In the adjoining figure, two circles with radii <math>8</math> and <math>6</math> are drawn with their centers <math>12</math> units apart. At <math>P</math>, one of the points of intersection, a line is drawn in such a way that the chords <math>QP</math> and <math>PR</math> have equal length. Find the square of the length of <math>QP</math>. | In the adjoining figure, two circles with radii <math>8</math> and <math>6</math> are drawn with their centers <math>12</math> units apart. At <math>P</math>, one of the points of intersection, a line is drawn in such a way that the chords <math>QP</math> and <math>PR</math> have equal length. Find the square of the length of <math>QP</math>. | ||
<asy> | <asy>size(160); defaultpen(linewidth(.8pt)+fontsize(11pt)); dotfactor=3; pair O1=(0,0), O2=(12,0); path C1=Circle(O1,8), C2=Circle(O2,6); pair P=intersectionpoints(C1,C2)[0]; path C3=Circle(P,sqrt(130)); pair Q=intersectionpoints(C3,C1)[0]; pair R=intersectionpoints(C3,C2)[1]; draw(C1); draw(C2); draw(O2--O1); dot(O1); dot(O2); draw(Q--R); label("$Q$",Q,NW); label("$P$",P,1.5*dir(80)); label("$R$",R,NE); label("12",waypoint(O1--O2,0.4),S);</asy> | ||
defaultpen(linewidth(.8pt)+fontsize( | |||
dotfactor=3; | |||
pair O1=(0,0), O2=(12,0); | |||
path C1=Circle(O1,8), C2=Circle(O2,6); | |||
pair P=intersectionpoints(C1,C2)[0]; | |||
path C3=Circle(P,sqrt(130)); | |||
pair Q=intersectionpoints(C3,C1)[0]; | |||
pair R=intersectionpoints(C3,C2)[1]; | |||
draw(C1); | |||
draw(C2); | |||
draw(Q--R); | |||
label("$Q$",Q, | |||
label("$P$",P,dir(80)); | |||
label("$R$",R, | |||
</asy> | |||
__TOC__ | __TOC__ | ||
Revision as of 13:40, 25 January 2016
Problem
In the adjoining figure, two circles with radii
and
are drawn with their centers
units apart. At
, one of the points of intersection, a line is drawn in such a way that the chords
and
have equal length. Find the square of the length of
.
Solution
Solution 1
First, notice that if we reflect
over
we get
. Since we know that
is on circle
and
is on circle
, we can reflect circle
over
to get another circle (centered at a new point
with radius
) that intersects circle
at
. The rest is just finding lengths:
Since
is the midpoint of segment
,
is a median of triangle
. Because we know that
,
, and
, we can find the third side of the triangle using Stewart's Theorem or similar approaches. We get
. So now we have a kite
with
,
, and
, and all we need is the length of the other diagonal
. The easiest way it can be found is with the Pythagorean Theorem. Let
be the length of
. Then
Doing routine algebra on the above equation, we find that
, so
Solution 2
Draw additional lines as indicated. Note that since triangles
and
are isosceles, the altitudes are also bisectors, so let
.
Since
triangles
and
are similar. If we let
, we have
.
Applying the Pythagorean Theorem on triangle
, we have
. Similarly, for triangle
, we have
.
Subtracting,
.
Solution 3
Let
. Angles
,
, and
must add up to
. By the Law of Cosines,
. Also, angles
and
equal
and
. So we have
Taking the
of both sides and simplifying using the cosine addition identity gives
.
Solution 4
Observe that the length of the area where the two circles intersect can be found explicitly as
. Let
, then the power of point
with regards to the larger circle gives
See Also
| 1983 AIME (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
| Preceded by Problem 13 |
Followed by Problem 15 | |
| 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 | ||
| All AIME Problems and Solutions | ||