Oxford MAT Livestream 2022 – Geometry

MAT syllabus
Co-ordinate geometry and vectors in the plane. The equations of straight lines and circles.
Basic properties of circles. Lengths of arcs of circles.

Revision
• Points in the plane can be described with two co-ordinates (x, y). The x-axis is the line
y = 0, and the y-axis is the line x = 0.
 
x
• A vector can store the same information as a pair of co-ordinates. Used in that
y
sense, the vector is called a position vector.
 
2
• A vector can also describe the displacement from one point to another, so that
1
could represent the displacement from (1, 1) to (3, 2) for example.

• Vectors can be added by adding the components separately. To show that in a diagram,
we might interpret the first vector as a position vector (drawing an arrow starting from
the origin) and then interpret the second as a displacement (drawing an arrow starting
from the end of the first vector).
 
x p
• The magnitude of the vector is x2 + y 2 .
y
• The distance from A to B is the magnitude p of the vector displacement from A to B.
The distance from (x1 , y1 ) to (x2 , y2 ) is (x2 − x1 )2 + (y2 − y1 )2 .

• A vector can be multiplied by a number by multiplying each component by that number.

The result is a vector in the same direction but with scaled magnitude.

• A straight line has equation y = mx+c, where m is the gradient and c is the y-intercept.
Other ways to write the equation of a line are ax + by + c = 0 (where that’s a different
c to the one in the previous expression) or y − y1 = m(x − x1 ). The last expression
is useful because that line goes through the point (x1 , y1 ) and has gradient m, which
might be information that we’ve been given.

• Two lines are parallel if and only if they have the same gradient. Two lines are per-
pendicular if and only if their gradients multiply to give −1.

• The equation of a circle with centre (a, b) and radius r is (x − a)2 + (y − b)2 = r2 .

• The angle in a semicircle is a right angle; if AB is the diameter of a circle, and C is on

the circle, then ∠ACB = 90◦ .

For solutions see www.maths.ox.ac.uk/r/matlive

Oxford MAT Livestream 2022 – Geometry

• The tangent is at right angles to the radius at any point on a circle’s circumference.

• A circle with radius r has area πr2 and circumference 2πr.

• If two radii of a circle of radius r make an angle of θ (in degrees), then the length of
θ
the arc between those radii is 2πr. The area of the sector enclosed by that arc and
360◦
θ
the radii is πr2 .
360◦

Warm-up
     
3 −4 1
1. Draw a diagram to show the three separate position vectors and and .
2 1 −2
   
3 −4
2. Add the vectors and . Show this on your diagram.
2 1
   
−4 1
3. Find 3 +2 . Show this on your diagram.
1 −2
4. Find the equation of the line through the points (1, 5) and (3, −1).

5. Find the equation of the line through the point (3, 5) with gradient 2.

6. Find equations of three lines such that the region bounded by the three lines is an
equilateral triangle.

7. A circle has centre (−1, 4) and radius 3. Write down an equation for the circle. What’s
the area of this circle?

8. A circle is given by x2 + 9x + y 2 − 3y = 10. Find the centre and radius of the circle.

9. Points A and B lie on a circle with centre O and radius 2. The angle ∠AOB is 120◦ .
Find the length of the arc between A and B. Find the area enclosed by that arc and
the radii OA and OB.

10. A circle is given by x2 + y 2 = 4. The line x = 1 splits the circle into two regions. Find
the area of each region.

11. Two circles are given by x2 + y 2 = 4 and (x − 2)2 + y 2 = 4. Find the area of the region
that’s inside both circles.

12. The points (0, 0) and (1, a) and (0, a + 1/a) all lie on the same circle. Find the centre
of the circle in terms of a. Hint: angles.

For solutions see www.maths.ox.ac.uk/r/matlive

Oxford MAT Livestream 2022 – Geometry

MAT questions
MAT 2013 Q1H
The area bounded by the graphs
√ √  √
y= 2− x2 and x + 2−1 y = 2

equals √
sin 2 π 1 π π2
(a) √ , (b) −√ , (c) √ , (d) .
2 4 2 2 2 6
Hint: we’ve included this in the geometry section and not in the integration section!

For solutions see www.maths.ox.ac.uk/r/matlive

Oxford MAT Livestream 2022 – Geometry

MAT 2017 Q1G

For all θ in the range 0 6 θ < 360◦ the line

(y − 1) cos θ = (x + 1) sin θ

divides the disc x2 + y 2 6 4 into two regions. Let A(θ) denote the area of the larger region.

Then A(θ) achieves its maximum value at

(a) one value of θ , (b) two values of θ, (c) three values of θ,

(d) four values of θ, (e) all values of θ .

Hint: don’t try to differentiate, draw a picture instead.

For solutions see www.maths.ox.ac.uk/r/matlive

Oxford MAT Livestream 2022 – Geometry

MAT 2016 Q1I

Let a and b be positive real numbers. If x2 + y 2 6 1 then the largest that ax + by can equal
is
1 1 √
(a) + , (b) max(a, b), (c) a2 + b 2 , (d) a + b, (e) a2 + ab + b2 .
a b

Hint: where does ax + by take a particular value? How does the value relate to your answer
to that question? How can we maximise this value?

For solutions see www.maths.ox.ac.uk/r/matlive

Oxford MAT Livestream 2022 – Geometry

MAT 2016 Q4
The line l passes through the origin at angle 2α above the x-axis, where 2α < 90◦ .
y
l

2α
x

Circles C1 of radius 1 and C2 of radius 3 are drawn between l and the x-axis, just touching
both lines.

(i) What is the centre of circle C1 ?

(ii) What is the equation of circle C1 ?

(iii) For what value of α do circles C1 and C2 touch?

(iv) For this value of α (for which the circles C1 and C2 touch) a third circle, C3 , larger
than C2 , is to be drawn between l and the x-axis. C3 just touches both lines and also
touches C2 . What is the radius of this circle C3 ?

(v) For the same value of α, what is the area of the region bounded by the x-axis and the
circles C1 and C2 ?

Hints: Draw a large diagram. Make sure that circle C1 is touching both lines. Draw in
any relevant radii and mark any right angles. It’s interesting that we’ve been told that the
angle is 2α rather than α. Maybe sketch the angle bisector just to see what happens?

For part (iii) we’re asked to make the circles touch. We could convert that to an algebra
problem (something about having a unique solution rather than two or zero solutions), but
it’s more straightforward to stick to ideas from geometry. Draw a diagram where the circles
just touch. Can you tell me anything about the distance between the centres?

For part (v) note that circle C3 doesn’t matter any more; this part of the question is just
about the first two circles C1 and C2 again.

For solutions see www.maths.ox.ac.uk/r/matlive

Oxford MAT Livestream 2022 – Geometry

Extension
The following material is included for your interest only, and not for MAT preparation.

Here’s some content on ellipses. Just to be clear, ellipses are not on the MAT syllabus!
The first time you meet ellipses, they’re just stretched circles

x2 y 2
+ 2 = c2 .
a2 b
That gives you ellipses that are lined up with the x-axis and y-axis (in the sense that the
longest distance across the ellipse and the shortest distance across the ellipse are each parallel
to either the x-axis or the y-axis). But what if we see something like (x − y)2 + 4(x + y)2 = 9?
That looks a bit like the equation for an ellipse above, and if we sketch it (for example, by
typing it into a curve-sketching website like Desmos) then it certainly looks like an ellipse!

(x − y)2 + 4(x + y)2 = 9

−1.5 −1 −0.5 0.5 1 1.5

−1

In fact, it is an ellipse, but it’s been rotated. Rotations like this are not on the MAT syllabus,
but you might learn about them later on in A-level Maths or Further Maths or equivalent,
especially if you learn about matrices.

More generally, anything of the form (ax + by)2 + (cx + dy)2 = r2 is an ellipse.

If we’re given something like Ax2 + Bxy + Cy 2 = r2 , then we’re faced with quite a difficult
problem to work out whether it’s in the form above (sort of like completing two squares at
once!). At Oxford on our mathematics degree, we teach people how to deal with these ex-
pressions, which are called “quadratic forms”. I won’t explain the logic here, but it turns out
that the expression there represents an ellipse if and only if B 2 < 4AC (does that expression
seem familiar?)

For solutions see www.maths.ox.ac.uk/r/matlive

Oxford MAT Livestream 2022 – Geometry

Otherwise, if B 2 > 4AC then the equation Ax2 + Bxy + Cy 2 = r2 represents a hyperbola (a
shape like xy = 1), or if B 2 = 4AC then the equation represents a pair of straight lines (in
this special case, can you solve for the equations of the lines?)

For solutions see www.maths.ox.ac.uk/r/matlive