2007 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 18

Problem

A circle of radius $1$ is surrounded by $4$ circles of radius $r$ as shown. What is $r$ ?

$[asy] unitsize(3mm); defaultpen(linewidth(.8pt)+fontsize(7pt)); dotfactor=4; real r1=1, r2=1+sqrt(2); pair A=(0,0), B=(1+sqrt(2),1+sqrt(2)), C=(-1-sqrt(2),1+sqrt(2)), D=(-1-sqrt(2),-1-sqrt(2)), E=(1+sqrt(2),-1-sqrt(2)); pair A1=(1,0), B1=(2+2sqrt(2),1+sqrt(2)), C1=(0,1+sqrt(2)), D1=(0,-1-sqrt(2)), E1=(2+2sqrt(2),-1-sqrt(2)); path circleA=Circle(A,r1); path circleB=Circle(B,r2); path circleC=Circle(C,r2); path circleD=Circle(D,r2); path circleE=Circle(E,r2); draw(circleA); draw(circleB); draw(circleC); draw(circleD); draw(circleE); draw(A--A1); draw(B--B1); draw(C--C1); draw(D--D1); draw(E--E1); label("$1$",midpoint(A--A1),N); label("$r$",midpoint(B--B1),N); label("$r$",midpoint(C--C1),N); label("$r$",midpoint(D--D1),N); label("$r$",midpoint(E--E1),N); [/asy]$

$\textbf{(A) } \sqrt{2} \qquad\textbf{(B) } 1+\sqrt{2} \qquad\textbf{(C) } \sqrt{6} \qquad\textbf{(D) } 3 \qquad\textbf{(E) } 2+\sqrt{2}$

Solution

You can express the line connecting the centers of an outer circle and the inner circle in two different ways. You can add the radius of both circles to get $r+1.$ You can also add the radius of two outer circles and use a $45-45-90$ triangle to get $\frac{2r}{\sqrt{2}} = r\sqrt{2}.$ Since both representations are for the same thing, you can set them equal to each other. $\begin{align*} r+1&=r\sqrt{2}\\ 1&=r(\sqrt{2}-1)\end{align*}$ $r = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}-1} = \frac{\sqrt{2}+1}{2-1} = \boxed{\mathrm{(B) \ } 1 + \sqrt{2}}$

2007 AMC 10B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 17	Followed by Problem 19
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2007 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 18

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