
314 Chapter 8 Miscellaneous 2D Problems
C
2
r
2
C
0
r
0
r
1
C
1
Figure 8.27 Circles tangent to two circles with a given radius.
8.11 Circles Tangent to Two Circles
with a Given Radius
Suppose we have two circles, C
0
: {C
0
, r
0
}and C
1
: {C
1
, r
1
}, and we wish to find a circle
tangent to these two circles and having a given radius, as shown in Figure 8.27. There
are, of course, a variety of possible solutions, depending on the relative positions
of the circles, their radii, and the radius specified for the other circle, as shown in
Figure 8.28.
Our third circle C
2
: {C
2
, r
2
}has a known radius; it is our problem to compute its
center. This circle must be tangent to C
0
and C
1
, which means that its center must be
r
0
+ r
2
from C
0
and r
1
+ r
2
from C
1
. The insight here leading to a solution is to note
that this is equivalent to finding the intersection of two circles centered at C
0
and C
1
,
having radii r
0
+ r
2
and r
1
+ r
2
, respectively, as shown in Figure 8.29. If our original
circles are
C
0
: (x − C
0,x
)
2
+ (y − C
0,y
)
2
= r
2
0
C
1
: (x − C
1,x
)
2
+ (y − C
1,y
)
2
= r
2
1
then they have the equations
C
0
: (x − C
0,x
)
2
+ (y − C
0,y
)
2
= (r
0
+ r
2
)
2
C
1
: (x − C
1,x
)
2
+ (y − C
1,y
)
2
= (r
1
+ r
2
)
2
If we compute the intersection of C
0
and C
1
, we’ll have the origins of the circles
tangent to them. The intersection of two circles is covered in Section 7.5.2.