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What You Need to Know About a Circle's Radius and Chords

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2016-03-26 20:32:09
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Geometry Essentials For Dummies
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When you’re working with a circle, there are five important theorems that you need to know about the properties of the circle’s radii and chords. (There are really just three ideas; but two of the theorems work in both directions which brings the total to five):

Segment <i>PG</i> is a chord, segment <i>AB</i> is the diameter, and segment <i>OC</i> is the radiu
Segment PG is a chord, segment AB is the diameter, and segment OC is the radius of this circle.
  • Radii size: All radii of a circle are congruent.

  • Perpendicularity and bisected chords:

    • If a radius is perpendicular to a chord, then it bisects the chord.

    • If a radius bisects a chord (that isn’t a diameter), then it’s perpendicular to the chord.

  • Distance and chord size:

    • If two chords of a circle are equidistant from the center of the circle, then they’re congruent.

    • If two chords of a circle are congruent, then they’re equidistant from its center.

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Mark Ryan has more than three decades’ experience as a calculus teacher and tutor. He has a gift for mathematics and a gift for explaining it in plain English. He tutors students in all junior high and high school math courses as well as math test prep, and he’s the founder of The Math Center on Chicago’s North Shore. Ryan is the author of Calculus For Dummies, Calculus Essentials For Dummies, Geometry For Dummies, and several other math books.