Browse · MATH
Printjmc
geometry senior
Problem
Stuart has drawn a pair of concentric circles, as shown. He draws chords , of the large circle, each tangent to the small one. If , then how many segments will he draw before returning to his starting point at ? 
Solution
We look at . cuts off minor arc , which has measure , so minor arcs and each have measure .
Stuart cuts off one minor arc with each segment he draws. By the time Stuart comes all the way around to his starting point and has drawn, say, segments, he will have created minor arcs which can be pieced together to form a whole number of full circles, say, circles. Let there be full circles with total arc measure . Then we have We want to find the smallest integer for which there is an integer solution . Dividing both sides of the equation by gives ; thus, we see works (in which case ). The answer is segments.
Stuart cuts off one minor arc with each segment he draws. By the time Stuart comes all the way around to his starting point and has drawn, say, segments, he will have created minor arcs which can be pieced together to form a whole number of full circles, say, circles. Let there be full circles with total arc measure . Then we have We want to find the smallest integer for which there is an integer solution . Dividing both sides of the equation by gives ; thus, we see works (in which case ). The answer is segments.
Final answer
24