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Circle Construction

Circle construction

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José Martínez
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22 views

Circle Construction

Circle construction

Uploaded by

José Martínez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Construct a circle via intersection requirements

Problem 1. Let d be the circle of radius 3 centered at the origin. Let ℓ be the line passing through (2, 0)
and (0, 4). “Find” a circle c such that
(A) c intersects d at angle 30o ;
(B) c is tangent to ℓ;
(C) c passes through (5, 3).

Solution.
1. Intersection angles. Consider a smooth curve in the plane given by the equation f (x, y) = 0.
Letting f1 , f2 be the partial derivatives of f with respect to x, y, respectively, we have that the vector
τ = (τ1 , τ2 ) = (f1 (X, Y ), f2 (X, Y )) is tangent to the curve at the point (X, Y ).
If g(x, y) = 0 is a second curve intersecting the first one at the point (X, Y ) then their angle of intersection
is the angle between the vector τ and the vector
σ = (σ1 , σ2 ) = (g1 (X, Y ), g2 (X, Y )).
Hence, the angle of intersection is θ if and only if
q q
τ1 σ1 + τ2 σ2 = (cos θ) τ12 + τ22 σ12 + σ22 . (1)
For the special case θ = 0, we have: the two curves are tangent at the point (X, Y ) if and only if
τ1 σ2 − τ2 σ1 = 0. (2)
2. Equations of given curves. The equations of the three curves of the problem are:
Circle d: x2 + y 2 = 9. A tangent vector at (x, y) is (2c, 2y) or, to make life simple, τd := (x, y).
Line ℓ: 2x + y = 4. A tangent vector at any point is τℓ := (2, 1).
Circle c: (x − p)2 + (y − q)2 = r2 . A tangent vector at (x, y) is τc := (x − p, y − q).
3. The meaning of the verb “find” in this context. It means “find the numbers p, q, r.”
4. The requirements. √
(A) Assume
√ √
that c and d intersect at the point (X, Y ). Use (1) with cos θ = 3/2 to get X(X −p)+Y (Y −
q) = 23 X 2 + Y 2 (X − p)2 + (Y − q)2 . Since (X, Y ) belongs to both d and c we have X 2 + Y 2 = 9
p

and (X − p)2 + (Y − q)2 = r2 . Using this we simplify the equation and obtain:
√
3 3
pX + qY = 9 − r.
2
(B) Assume that c and ℓ meet at the point (X ′ , Y ′ ). Use (2) to get 2(Y ′ − q) − (X ′ − p) = 0, that is,
2Y ′ − X ′ = 2q − p.
(C)
(5 − p)2 + (3 − q)2 = r2 .
5. A complete set of equations. We have 7 unknowns: p, q, r, X, Y, X ′ , Y ′ . The last three displays
give 3 equations. The other 4 equations follow from the facts that (X, Y ) belongs to c and (X, Y ) belongs
to d and (X ′ , Y ′ ) belongs to d and (X ′ , Y ′ ) belongs to ℓ:
X2 + Y 2 = 9
(X − p)2 + (Y − q)2 = r2
(X ′ − p)2 + (Y ′ − q)2 = r2
2X ′ + Y ′ = 4
Having 7 equations with 7 unknowns, the problem is now one of algebra. I’ll stop here.
Takis Konstantopoulos, 4 Oct. 2024

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