Secants and Tangents of Circles PowerPoint
Secants and Tangents of Circles PowerPoint
A
B
T
A A secant is a line that
B intersects a circle at exactly
two points. (Every secant
contains a chord of the circle.)
T
Tangent lines.
T
T
Tangent segment
T
A secant segment is the part of a secant line that
joins a point outside the circle to the farther
intersection point of the secant and the circle.
A
B
AR is the secant segment. R
The external part of a secant segment is the part
of a secant line that joins the outside point to the
nearer intersection point.
A
B
R
A O
C
Tangent Circles
Tangent circles are circles that intersect each other at
exactly one point.
P Q Q P
Y
Q
P
X
A
B
Practice
• Draw five circles anywhere on your paper,
label them 1-5.
– Draw a tangent line to circle 1.
– Draw a secant line to circle 2.
– Draw a common tangent line between circles 3
and 4.
– Draw an external tangent line between 4 and 5.
– Draw an internal tangent line between 1 and 2.
1. Draw the segment joining the centers.
2. Draw the radii to the points of contact.
3. Through the center of the smaller circle, draw
a line parallel to the common tangent.
4. Observe that this line will intersect the radius
of the larger circle (extended if necessary) to
form a rectangle and a right triangle.
5. Use the Pythagorean Theorem and properties
of a rectangle.
Problem #1
A circle with a radius of 8 cm is
externally tangent to a circle with a
radius of 18 cm. Find the length of a
common external tangent.
R
18 8
18 – (10 – x)
AB = 10, BC = 15, AD = 18. E
Find CD. 10 - x
A D
10 - x 18 – (10 – x)
Let BE = x and “walk around” the figure
using the given information and the Two-
Tangent Theorem.
CD = 15 – x + 18 – (10 – x)
= 15 – x + 18 – 10 + x
= 23