Notes
two semi-circles in a square solution

Solution to the Two Semi-Circles in a Square Puzzle

Two Semi-Circles in a Square

The area of the square is 100100. What’s the missing length?

Solution by Angle Between a Radius and Tangent, Pythagoras' Theorem, Angle in a Semi-Circle, and Similar Triangles

Two semi-circles in a square labelled

With the points labelled as in the above diagram, let ACA C have length aa, BCB C have length bb, and let rr be the radius of the smaller semi-circle. Let cc be the length of AEA E. As the square has area 100100, it has side length 1010.

As the angle between a radius and tangent is 90 90^\circ, triangle AEDA E D is right-angled so Pythagoras' theorem applies and shows that:

c 2+r 2=(a+r) 2=a 2+2ar+r 2 c^2 + r^2 = (a + r)^2 = a^2 + 2 a r + r^2

So c 2=a 2+2arc^2 = a^2 + 2 a r.

Angle AC^BA \hat{C} B is 90 90^\circ as it is the angle in a semi-circle, so triangles ACBA C B and ABFA B F are similar. This means that the ratio of the lengths of ABA B to ACA C is equal to that of AFA F to ABA B. That is, 10a=a+2r10\frac{10}{a} = \frac{a + 2 r}{10}. This rearranges to 10 2=a 2+2ar10^2 = a^2 + 2 a r and so c 2=10 2c^2 = 10^2.

The missing length is therefore 1010.