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Geometry Difficulty 6.7 National Olympiad Find the answer

If AA and BB are fixed points on a given circle and XYXY is a variable diameter of the same circle, determine the locus of the point of intersection of lines AXAX and BYBY . You may assume that ABAB is not a diameter.

Figure (Asymptote source)
size(300); defaultpen(fontsize(8)); real r=10; picture pica, picb; pair A=r*expi(5*pi/6), B=r*expi(pi/6), X=r*expi(pi/3), X1=r*expi(-pi/12), Y=r*expi(4*pi/3), Y1=r*expi(11*pi/12), O=(0,0), P, P1; P = extension(A,X,B,Y);P1 = extension(A,X1,B,Y1); path circ1 = Circle((0,0),r);  draw(pica, circ1);draw(pica, B--A--P--Y--X);dot(pica,P^^O); label(pica,"$A$",A,(-1,1));label(pica,"$B$",B,(1,0));label(pica,"$X$",X,(0,1));label(pica,"$Y$",Y,(0,-1));label(pica,"$P$",P,(1,1));label(pica,"$O$",O,(-1,1));label(pica,"(a)",O+(0,-13),(0,0));  draw(picb, circ1);draw(picb, B--A--X1--Y1--B);dot(picb,P1^^O); label(picb,"$A$",A,(-1,1));label(picb,"$B$",B,(1,1));label(picb,"$X$",X1,(1,-1));label(picb,"$Y$",Y1,(-1,0));label(picb,"$P'$",P1,(-1,-1));label(picb,"$O$",O,(-1,-1)); label(picb,"(b)",O+(0,-13),(0,0));  add(pica); add(shift(30*right)*picb);

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

WLOG, assume that the circle is the unit circle centered at the origin. Then the points AA and BB have coordinates (a,b)(-a,b) and (a,b)(a,b) respectively and XX and YY have coordinates (r,s)(r,s) and (r,s)(-r,-s) . Note that these coordinates satisfy a2+b2=1a^2 + b^2 = 1 and r2+s2=1r^2 + s^2 = 1 since these points are on a unit circle. Now we can find equations for the lines: AXy=(sb)x+rb+sar+aBYy=(s+b)x+rbsar+a.\begin{align*} AX \longrightarrow y &= \frac{(s-b)x+rb+sa}{r+a}\\ BY \longrightarrow y &= \frac{(s+b)x+rb-sa}{r+a}. \end{align*} Solving these simultaneous equations gives coordinates for PP in terms of a,b,r,a, b, r, and ss : P=(asb,1arb)P = \left(\frac{as}{b},\frac{1 - ar}{b}\right) . These coordinates can be parametrized in Cartesian variables as follows: x=asby=1arb.\begin{align*} x &= \frac{as}{b}\\ y &= \frac{1 - ar}{b}. \end{align*} Now solve for rr and ss to get r=1byar = \frac{1-by}{a} and s=bxas = \frac{bx}{a} . Then since r2+s2=1,(bxa)2+(1bya)2=1r^2 + s^2 = 1, \left(\frac{bx}{a}\right)^2 + \left(\frac{1-by}{a}\right)^2 = 1 which reduces to x2+(y1/b)2=a2b2.x^2 + (y-1/b)^2 = \frac{a^2}{b^2}. This equation defines a circle and is the locus of all intersection points PP . In order to define this locus more generally, find the slope of this circle function using implicit differentiation: 2x+2(y1/b)y=0(y1/b)y=xy=xy1/b.\begin{align*} 2x + 2(y-1/b)y' &= 0\\ (y-1/b)y' &= -x\\ y' &= \frac{-x}{y-1/b}. \end{align*} Now note that at points AA and BB , this slope expression reduces to y=bay' = \frac{-b}{a} and y=bay' = \frac{b}{a} respectively, values which are identical to the slopes of lines AOAO and BOBO . Thus we conclude that the complete locus of intersection points is the circle tangent to lines AOAO and BOBO at points AA and BB respectively.

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