Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2008/ii/paper-1/11g/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 ii Paper 1 11G Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
inversion in a circle with center and radius is , with and infinity interchanged. It fixes the circle pointwise and reverses complex orientation. Each inversion is fractional-linear in , so composing two eliminates the conjugation and gives with nonzero determinant: a Möbius transformation.
Translate and rotate two distinct centers to , where , and let the radii be . The composition of inversion in the first circle followed by the second isIts fixed points solve . The discriminant isDisjoint circle boundaries require either or , so both factors have the same nonzero sign and . There are two distinct fixed points on the line of centers. If the circles are concentric, their radii differ and the composition is , with exactly the two fixed points . Thus the composition has two distinct fixed points, also for nested disjoint circles. Reversing the order inverts the Möbius transformation and leaves its fixed points unchanged.
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