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Concurrent Secants (Posted on 2015-08-02) Difficulty: 3 of 5

  
Three circles are located in the plane such that each pair of circles
intersect in two points, thereby defining a common secant.

Prove that if two of the secants intersect, then all three secants are
concurrent.
  

  Submitted by Bractals    
Rating: 4.0000 (2 votes)
Solution: (Hide)

  
First some definitions.

The power of a point P with respect to a circle C with center O and radius r
is defined by ℘(P,C) = |OP|2 - r2. Clearly it is negative, zero, or positive
depending on whether P is inside, on, or outside circle C.

The radical axis (or radical line) with respect to two nonconcentric circles
is defined as the locus of points whose power respect to both circles is the same. It is easy to show that it is a line perpendicular to the line joining the centers of the circles. If the circles intersect in two points, then the radical axis is the secant defined by the two points.

In our problem let C1, C2, and C3 be the the three circles and S12, S23, and S31 be the common secants (with subscripts denoting which circles). Let S12 and S23 intersect at point P.

   P∈S12  ⇒ ℘(P,C1) = ℘(P,C2)
   P∈S23  ⇒ ℘(P,C2) = ℘(P,C3)
   ⇒  ℘(P,C1) = ℘(P,C3) ⇒  P∈S31
Therefore, the secants are concurrent.

QED
  

Comments: ( You must be logged in to post comments.)
  Subject Author Date
SolutionSolutionHarry2015-08-18 11:17:56
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