D29. Geometric-Trigonometric Inequality

Contributed by Yagub Aliyev, ADA University, Azerbaijan

Since no respondents provided a solution to his last problem, Prof. Aliyev is willing to offer one more chance to unravel his mysterious diagrams. In the accompanying figure, nonintersecting circles with radii r < R have common
external tangent lines A B and C D , where the named points are
the points of tangency. Choose point M on segment A B so that
angles A M D and B M C are equal. Let θ be the angle D C M .
Show that sin ⁡ θ ≤ r / R .

This problem originally appeared in the Prisoner’s Dilemma in the 2025 Fall issue of the PMP Newsletter. Solutions will be accepted through 2025 Jan 2.