[Geometry] Sangaku Three Circles Problem
By: Tao Steven Zheng (鄭濤)
【Problem】
Figure 1 shows a famous Japanese sangaku (算額) problem from Gunma prefecture in 1824. Suppose the radius of the left circle is , the radius of the right circle is
, and the radius of the circle at the center is?
, determine the formula for the radius of center circle.


【Solution】
Let? ?represent the radius of the left circle, right circle, and center circle respectively. According to Figure 2,?
,?
and
. Furthermore,
,
,
?and
. Let
and
, then
.
?

Applying the Pythagorean theorem, we get
Simplify the above three equations as
Taking the positive square roots give
Hence,
?Therefore,
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