2000 AMC 12 Problems/Problem 17

Problem

A circle centered at $O$ has radius $1$ and contains the point $A$ . The segment $AB$ is tangent to the circle at $A$ and $\angle AOB = \theta$ . If point $C$ lies on $\overline{OA}$ and $\overline{BC}$ bisects $\angle ABO$ , then $OC =$

$[asy] import olympiad; size(6cm); unitsize(1cm); defaultpen(fontsize(8pt)+linewidth(.8pt)); labelmargin=0.2; dotfactor=3; pair O=(0,0); pair A=(1,0); pair B=(1,1.5); pair D=bisectorpoint(A,B,O); pair C=extension(B,D,O,A); draw(Circle(O,1)); draw(O--A--B--cycle); draw(B--C); label("$O$",O,SW); dot(O); label("$\theta$",(0.1,0.05),ENE); dot(C); label("$C$",C,S); dot(A); label("$A$",A,E); dot(B); label("$B$",B,E);[/asy]$

$\text {(A)}\ \sec^2 \theta - \tan \theta \qquad \text {(B)}\ \frac 12 \qquad \text {(C)}\ \frac{\cos^2 \theta}{1 + \sin \theta}\qquad \text {(D)}\ \frac{1}{1+\sin\theta} \qquad \text {(E)}\ \frac{\sin \theta}{\cos^2 \theta}$

Solution

Since $\overline{AB}$ is tangent to the circle, $\triangle OAB$ is a right triangle. This means that $OA = 1$ , $BA = \tan \theta$ and $OB = \sec \theta$ . By the Angle Bisector Theorem, $\frac{OB}{OC} = \frac{AB}{AC} \Longrightarrow AC \sec \theta = OC \tan \theta$ We multiply both sides by $\cos \theta$ to simplify the trigonometric functions, $AC=OC \sin \theta$ Since $AC + OC = 1$ , $1 - OC = OC \sin \theta \Longrightarrow$ $OC = \dfrac{1}{1+\sin \theta}$ . Therefore, the answer is $\boxed{\textbf{(D)} \dfrac{1}{1+\sin \theta}}$ .

2000 AMC 12 (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 16	Followed by Problem 18
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
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2000 AMC 12 Problems/Problem 17

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