To show the center of homothety of the biggest and smallest circle lies in the common tangent over T

euclidean-geometrygeometric transformationgeometryhomothetysoddy-circles

$c_1$ centered at $A$ passing through $B$.

$BB′$ is a diameter of $c_1$.

$T$ a random point in segment $BB′$.

$c_2$ centered at $B′$ passing through $T$.

$c_3$ centered at $B$ passing through $T$.

$c_4$ tangent externally to $c_2$ and $c_3$ and internally tangent to $c_1$

$F$ is center of $c_4$ and $H,I$ are tangency points.

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It is clear to me that $Z = HI \cap AF$ is the second homothety center of $c_1$ and $c_4$ and I would like to prove that it also lies in that line perpendicular to $AB$ through $T$.

important related result that you probably should know: Show these three circles share their external common tangent lines

This seems to be a general result about soddy circles

Best Answer

  • Let common tangent at $T$ meet $AF$ at $Y$ and let perpendicular to $AB$ through $F$ meet $AB$ at $L$. enter image description here Then we calculate $y=LT$ by Pythagoras theorem: $$ B'F^2-B'L^2 = LF^2 =BF^2-BL^2$$ so $$ (b+c)^2-(b-y)^2 = (2a+b+c)^2-(2a+b+y)^2$$ and so we get $$y= {ac\over a+b}$$ so $${AY\over FY} = {AT\over LT} = {a\over y} = {a+b\over c}$$

  • On the other hand let $X$ be in $HI\cap AF$. enter image description here Homothety $H_1$ at $H$ and coefficient ${b\over c}$ takes $F$ to $B'$ and homothety $H_2$ at $G$ and coefficient ${a+b\over b}$ takes $B'$ to $A$, so composition $H_2\circ H_1$ takes $F$ to $A$ and has center at $FA\cap GH =X$. This composition has coefficent $${a+b\over b}\cdot {b\over c} = {a+b\over c}$$ so $X$ divides $AF$ in the same ratio as $Y$ and thus $X=Y$ and we are done.

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