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Parabola and Circle Dance (Posted on 2024-05-01) Difficulty: 3 of 5
Let y=x2+ax+b be a parabola that cuts the coordinate axes at three distinct points. Show that the circle passing through these three points also passes through (0,1).

No Solution Yet Submitted by Danish Ahmed Khan    
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Solution Solution Comment 2 of 2 |
This is actually pretty easy once you figure it out, D2 instead of D3 hard.

Since we know y has 2 real roots then we can write y=(x-p)*(x-q) where p+q=a and p*q=b.
Then the two x-intercepts are at (p,0) and (q,0) and the y-intercept is at (0,pq).  The circle through these points intersects the y-axis at one more place, call that point (0,z).

For any circle if chords AB and CD are perpendicular and intersect at O then AO*OB = CO*OD.
From our four points then we can have AO=p, OB=q, CO=pq and OD=z.  Then p*q=pq*z, which makes z=1.  
Therefore the circle must also pass through (0,1).

  Posted by Brian Smith on 2024-05-01 11:11:34
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