Problem

2006 AMC 12A Problem 16

Circles with centers A and B have radii 3 and 8, respectively. A common internal tangent intersects the circles at C and D, respectively. Lines AB and CD intersect at E, and AE=5. What is CD? [asy]unitsize(2.5mm); defaultpen(fontsize(10pt)+linewidth(.8pt)); dotfactor=3; pair A=(0,0), Ep=(5,0), B=(5+40/3,0); pair M=midpoint(A--Ep); pair C=intersectionpoints(Circle(M,2.5),Circle(A,3))[1]; pair D=B+8*dir(180+degrees(C)); dot(A); dot(C); dot(B); dot(D); draw(C--D); draw(A--B); draw(Circle(A,3)); draw(Circle(B,8)); label("$A$",A,W); label("$B$",B,E); label("$C$",C,SE); label("$E$",Ep,SSE); label("$D$",D,NW);[/asy] \mathrm{(A)}\ 13\qquad\mathrm{(B)}\ \frac{44}{3}\qquad\mathrm{(C)}\ \sqrt{221}\qquad\mathrm{(D)}\ \sqrt{255}\qquad\mathrm{(E)}\ \frac{55}{3}


Full credit goes to MAA for authoring these problems. These problems were taken on the AOPS website.


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