2026 AIME I Problem 12
Below is the professionally curated solution for Problem 12 of the 2026 AIME I, from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 2026 AIME I solutions, or check the answer key.
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Difficulty rating: 3060
12.
Triangle lies in plane with and Let be the reflection across of the centroid of Four spheres, all on the same side of have radii and and are tangent to at points and respectively. The four spheres are also each tangent to a second plane and are all on the same side of The value of can be written as where and are relatively prime positive integers. Find
Solution:
A sphere of radius tangent to at has center where is the upward unit normal of Write as with unit normal in coordinates where is the -plane. Tangency with all spheres on the same side means for each sphere, that is Here since otherwise the left side would be constant while the radii differ. So for the affine function
Take The affine function with is The centroid is and line is Since reflecting gives
Therefore (Such a plane exists: the normal condition with gives ) Since the answer is
Problem 12 in Other Years
1997 AIME · 1998 AIME · 1999 AIME · 2000 AIME I · 2000 AIME II · 2001 AIME I · 2001 AIME II · 2002 AIME I · 2002 AIME II · 2003 AIME I · 2003 AIME II · 2004 AIME I · 2004 AIME II · 2005 AIME I · 2005 AIME II · 2006 AIME I · 2006 AIME II · 2007 AIME I · 2007 AIME II · 2008 AIME I · 2008 AIME II · 2009 AIME I · 2009 AIME II · 2010 AIME I · 2010 AIME II · 2011 AIME I · 2011 AIME II · 2012 AIME I · 2012 AIME II · 2013 AIME I · 2013 AIME II · 2014 AIME I · 2014 AIME II · 2015 AIME I · 2015 AIME II · 2016 AIME I · 2016 AIME II · 2017 AIME I · 2017 AIME II · 2018 AIME I · 2018 AIME II · 2019 AIME I · 2019 AIME II · 2020 AIME I · 2020 AIME II · 2021 AIME I · 2021 AIME II · 2022 AIME I · 2022 AIME II · 2023 AIME I · 2023 AIME II · 2024 AIME I · 2024 AIME II · 2025 AIME I · 2025 AIME II · 2026 AIME II