1975 USAMO Problems/Problem 4

Problem

Two given circles intersect in two points $P$ and $Q$ . Show how to construct a segment $AB$ passing through $P$ and terminating on the two circles such that $AP\cdot PB$ is a maximum.

$[asy] size(150); defaultpen(fontsize(7)); pair A=(0,0), B=(10,0), P=(4,0), Q=(3.7,-2.5); draw(A--B); draw(circumcircle(A,P,Q)); draw(circumcircle(B,P,Q)); label("A",A,(-1,1));label("P",P,(0,1.5));label("B",B,(1,1));label("Q",Q,(-0.5,-1.5)); [/asy]$

Solution

Let $E$ and $F$ be the centers of the small and big circles, respectively, and $r$ and $R$ be their respective radii.

Let $M$ and $N$ be the feet of $E$ and $F$ to $AB$ , and $\alpha = \angle APE$ and $\epsilon = \angle BPF$

We have:

$AP \times PB = 2r \cos{\alpha} \times 2R \cos{\epsilon} = 4 rR \cos{\alpha} \cos{\epsilon}$

$AP\times PB$ is maximum when the product $\cos{\alpha} \cos{\epsilon}$ is a maximum.

We have $\cos{\alpha} \cos{\epsilon}= \frac{1}{2} [\cos(\alpha +\epsilon) + \cos(\alpha -\epsilon)]$

But $\alpha +\epsilon = 180^{\circ} - \angle EPF$ and is fixed, so is $\cos(\alpha +\epsilon)$ .

So its maximum depends on $cos(\alpha -\epsilon)$ which occurs when $\alpha=\epsilon$ . To draw the line $AB$ :

Draw a circle with center $P$ and radius $PE$ to cut the radius $PF$ at $H$ . Draw the line parallel to $EH$ passing through $P$ . This line meets the small and big circles at $A$ and $B$ , respectively.

Alternate solutions are always welcome. If you have a different, elegant solution to this problem, please add it to this page.

1975 USAMO (Problems • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 3	Followed by Problem 5
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5
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1975 USAMO Problems/Problem 4

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