2008 AMC 12A Problems/Problem 13
- The following problem is from both the 2008 AMC 12A #13 and 2008 AMC 10A #16, so both problems redirect to this page.
Contents
[hide]Problem
Points and lie on a circle centered at , and . A second circle is internally tangent to the first and tangent to both and . What is the ratio of the area of the smaller circle to that of the larger circle?
Solution 1
Let be the center of the small circle with radius , and let be the point where the small circle is tangent to . Also, let be the point where the small circle is tangent to the big circle with radius .
Then is a right triangle. Angle is degrees because line bisects angle (this can be proved by dropping a perpendicular line from to line , letting their intersection be point , and proving triangles and congruent), meaning that is a triangle. Therefore, .
Since , we have , or , or .
Ratio of areas of circles is ratio of radii squared, so the answer is
Solution 2
Like in Solution 1, let be the center of the small circle with radius , and let be the point where the small circle is tangent to .
Let be the tangency point of the two circles. As shown in Solution 1, degrees, so angle is also degrees. Let the line tangent to the two circles at intersect and at points and , respectively. Since line is tangent to circles and , it must be perpendicular to , meaning that angle must be degrees. Because angle is degrees, angle is degrees. Angle is also degrees, so triangle is equilateral.
Note that an equilateral triangle's incenter is also its centroid. This means the center of the inscribed circle is also the centroid. From properties of median lengths, the radius of the large circle is 3 times the radius of the small circle.
Then the ratio of areas will be squared, or .
See also
2008 AMC 12A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | |
Preceded by Problem 12 |
Followed by Problem 14 |
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 | |
All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions |
2008 AMC 10A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
Preceded by Problem 15 |
Followed by Problem 17 | |
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 | ||
All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions |
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