Problem

Six spheres of radius

side length

are positioned so that their centers are at the vertices of a regular hexagon of

. The six spheres are internally tangent to a larger sphere whose center is the center of

the hexagon. An eighth sphere is externally tangent to the six smaller spheres and internally tangent
to the larger sphere. What is the radius of this eighth sphere?

Solution
We have a regular hexagon with side lengths 2 and six spheres on each vertex with radius 1 that are
internally tangent, therefore drawing radii going through all of them would create this regular
hexagon.
There is a larger sphere which the 6 spheres are internally tangent to, with center in the center of the
hexagon. To find the radius of the larger sphere we must first, either by prior knowledge or by
deducing from the angle sum that the hexagon can be split into 6 equilateral triangles from it's
vertices, that the radius is
The 8th sphere is now, when thinking about it in 3D, sitting on top of the 6 spheres, which is the only
possibility for it to tangent all the 6 small spheres externally and the larger sphere internally. The ring
of the 6 small spheres is symmetrical and the 8th sphere will be resting with it's center aligned with
the diameter of the large sphere.
We can therefore now create a triangle with the horizontal component 2, as it is from the vertex of the
hexagon to the center of the hexagon. The vertical component is from the center of the large sphere
to the center of the 8th sphere. This length equals 3, the radius of the large sphere, take away the
radius of the 8th sphere, we can call it r, since the radius of the large sphere will include the diameter
of the 8th sphere if we subtract radius we will reach the center. The last component is the hypotenuse
of the right angled triangle. This consists of the radius of the small sphere - 1 - and the radius of the
8th sphere - r -.
We therefore now have a right angled triangle which when applied Pythagoras
states

Expanding brackets gives us

here we can cancel out

Isolating the r's

and then finally we have the

answer:

Solution
Set up an isosceles triangle between the center of the 8th sphere and two opposite ends of the
hexagon. Then set up another triangle between the point of tangency of the 7th and 8th spheres, and
the points of tangency between the 7th sphere and 2 of the original spheres on opposite sides of the
hexagon. Express each side length of the triangles in terms of r (the radius of sphere 8) and h (the
height of the first triangle). You can then use Pythagorean Theorem to set up two equations for the
two triangles, and find the values of h and r.

Problem
Eight spheres of radius 1, one per octant, are each tangent to the coordinate planes. What is the
radius of the smallest sphere, centered at the origin, that contains these eight spheres?

Solution
The eight spheres are formed by shifting spheres of radius
directions. Hence, the centers of the spheres are

and center

in the

. For a sphere centered at the origin to

contain all eight spheres, its radius must be greater than or equal to the longest distance from the
origin to one of these spheres. This length is the sum of the distance from
and the radius of the spheres, or

to the origin

. To verify this is the longest length, we can see from the

triangle inequality that the length from the origin to any other point on the spheres is strictly smaller.
Thus, the answer is

Problem
A right circular cone has for its base a circle having the same radius as a given sphere. The volume of the cone is
one-half that of the sphere. The ratio of the altitude of the cone to the radius of its base is:

Solution
By the given information we have

or

Problem
A right circular cylinder with its diameter equal to its height is inscribed in a right circular cone. The
cone has diameter

and altitude

, and the axes of the cylinder and cone coincide. Find the radius

of the cylinder.

Solution

Let the diameter of the cylinder be

two similar triangles. Hence,

is

. Examining the cross section of the cone and cylinder, we find

which we solve to find

. Our answer

Problem
An ice cream cone consists of a sphere of vanilla ice cream and a right circular cone that has the same
diameter as the sphere. If the ice cream melts, it will exactly fill the cone. Assume that the melted ice
cream occupies
itsradius?

of the volume of the frozen ice cream. What is the ratio of the cones height to

Solution
Let

be the common radius of the sphere and the cone, and

Thus

be the cones height. Then

.

Problem
Which of the cones listed below can be formed from a

sector of a circle of radius

by aligning

the two straight sides?

Solution

The blue lines will be joined together to form a single blue line on the surface of the cone, hence
will be the

of the cone.

The red line will form the circumference of the base. We can compute its length and use it to
determine the radius.

The length of the red line is

. This is the circumference of a circle with radius

.
Therefore the correct answer is

Problem
A container in the shape of a right circular cone is
liquid that is sealed inside is

inches tall and its base has a

-inch radius. The

inches deep when the cone is held with its point down and its base

horizontal. When the liquid is held with its point up and its base horizontal, the height of the liquid
is

from the base where

cube of any prime number. Find

and

are positive integers and

Contents
[hide]
1 Problem
2 Solution

2.1
Solution 1

2.2
Solution 2
3 See also

Solution

is not divisible by the

Solution 1

The scale factor is uniform in all dimensions, so the volume of the liquid is

The remaining section of the volume is

of the container.

of the volume, and therefore

of

the height when the vertex is at the top.

So, the liquid occupies

of the height,

or

. Thus

Solution 2
(Computational) The volume of a cone can be found by
let

. In the second container, if we

represent the height, radius (respectively) of the air (so

then the volume of the liquid can be found by

is the height of the liquid),

.

By similar triangles, we find that the dimensions of the liquid in the first cone to the entire cone is
and that

; equating,

Thus the answer is

, and

Problem
A right circular cone has base radius

and height

. The cone lies on its side on a flat table. As the

cone rolls on the surface of the table without slipping, the point where the cone's base meets the table
traces a circular arc centered at the point where the vertex touches the table. The cone first returns to
its original position on the table after making
in the form
prime. Find

, where

and

complete rotations. The value of

are positive integers and

can be written

is not divisible by the square of any

Solution
The path is a circle with radius equal to the slant height of the cone, which is
length of the path is

. Thus, the

Also, the length of the path is 17 times the circumference of the base, which is
equal gives
of

, or

. Thus,

. Setting these

, and

, giving an answer

Problem
A solid in the shape of a right circular cone is 4 inches tall and its base has a 3-inch radius. The
entire surface of the cone, including its base, is painted. Aplane parallel to the base of the cone divides
the cone into two solids, a smaller cone-shaped solid

and a frustum-shaped solid

that theratio between the areas of the painted surfaces of

the volumes of

and

are both equal to

. Given that

prime positive integers, find

Solution

and

in such a way

and the ratio between

where

and

are relatively

Our original solid has volume equal to

area
get
Let
cone

, where
and

and has surface

is the slant height of the cone. Using thePythagorean Theorem, we

denote the radius of the small cone. Let

and frustum

, respectively, and let

and
and

denote the area of the painted surface on

denote the volume of cone

respectively. Because the plane cut is parallel to the base of our solid,
and so the height and slant height of cone

are

and

and frustum

is similar to the uncut solid

, respectively. Using the formula for

lateral surface area of a cone, we find that

subtracting

. By

from the surface area of the original solid, we find that

Next, we can calculate

. Finally, we subtract

volume of the original cone to find that

in our values for

, and

from the

. We know that

Plugging

, we obtain the equation

can take reciprocals of both sides to simplify this equation to

Then

. We
and so

so the answer is

Problem
A right circular cone has a base with radius

and height

A fly starts at a point on the

surface of the cone whose distance from the vertex of the cone is

, and crawls along the surface of

the cone to a point on the exact opposite side of the cone whose distance from the vertex is
Find the least distance that the fly could have crawled.

Solution
Label the starting point of the fly as
given information,
can be calculated by:

and

and the ending as

and the vertex of the cone as

. With the

. By the Pythagorean Theorem, the slant height

, so the slant height of the cone is

. The base

of the cone has a circumference of

we get a sector of a circle

, so if we cut the cone along its slant height and through

with radius

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file]

Now the sector is

we know that

and

of the entire circle. So the degree measure of the sector is

are on opposite sides. Therefore, since

the "side" of a 270 degree sector,

lies on a radius of the circle that is

will lie exactly halfway between. Thus, the radius through

divide the circle into two sectors, each with measure

. Draw in

to create

the Law of Cosines,

have

. Now

. Now, by
. From there we

will