2023 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 10

Problem

In the $xy$ -plane, a circle of radius $4$ with center on the positive $x$ -axis is tangent to the $y$ -axis at the origin, and a circle with radius $10$ with center on the positive $y$ -axis is tangent to the $x$ -axis at the origin. What is the slope of the line passing through the two points at which these circles intersect?

$\textbf{(A)}\ \dfrac{2}{7} \qquad\textbf{(B)}\ \dfrac{3}{7} \qquad\textbf{(C)}\ \dfrac{2}{\sqrt{29}} \qquad\textbf{(D)}\ \dfrac{1}{\sqrt{29}} \qquad\textbf{(E)}\ \dfrac{2}{5}$

Solution

The center of the first circle is $(4,0)$ . The center of the second circle is $(0,10)$ . Thus, the slope of the line that passes through these two centers is $- \frac{10}{4} = - \frac{5}{2}$ .

Because this line is the perpendicular bisector of the line that passes through two intersecting points of two circles, the slope of the latter line is $\frac{-1}{- \frac{5}{2}} = \boxed{\textbf{(E) } \frac{2}{5}}$ .

~Steven Chen (Professor Chen Education Palace, www.professorchenedu.com)

2023 AMC 12B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 9	Followed by Problem 11
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

The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions.

Page

Toolbox

Search

2023 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 10

Problem

Solution

See Also