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jmc

algebra intermediate

Problem

A square region is externally tangent to the circle with equation at the point on the side . Vertices and are on the circle with equation . The side length of this square can be expressed in the form , where is not divisible by the square of any prime, and , , and share no common factors. Find .
Solution
Let be the length of the side of the square. The circles have radii of and . We can then draw the triangle shown in the figure above and write expressions for the sides of the triangle in terms of . Because is the radius of the larger circle, which is equal to , we can use the Pythagorean Theorem: Finally, we can use the quadratic formula to solve for : Thus, our answer is .
Final answer
30