Mock Geometry AIME 2011 Problems/Problem 10
Problem
Circle is defined by the equation
where
is a positive real number. Circle
passes through the center of
and its center lies on the line
Suppose that one of the tangent lines from the origin to circles
and
meets
and
at
respectively, that
where
is the origin, and that the radius of
is
. What is
?
Solution
Let the centers of be
and let their radii be
respectively. From the given information,
and
for some
. Using the distance formula between
and
yields
. From right triangle
, we have
. Rearranging yields
.
Similarly, using the distance formula between and
yields
. From right triangle
, we have
. Substituting for
and rearranging yields
.
From the distance formula, . Setting the previous two equations equal to each other yields
. The
terms nicely cancel out, leaving
. Thus
.