Theorem 34.1.1 · Area and Circumference
A circle with radius has
Slices, crusts and touching circles: sectors and arcs, radii that turn tangent circles into right triangles, the power of a point, and the special rules of quadrilaterals inscribed in a circle.
In this section you will be able to find the area of a sector and the length of an arc as a fraction of the whole circle, in degrees or radians.
A slice of pizza is a fraction of the whole pie. If the slice’s angle is 45°, it is of the area, and of the crust too.
Every sector question is one fraction: . Multiply it by for the area, or by for the arc length.
In radians the fraction is , so the arc is and the sector is . Shaded-region problems are sums and differences of these pieces.
A circle with radius has
For an arc of a circle with radius and angle :
The angle of an arc is the angle that the arc makes at the center of the circle.
Two distinct lines pass through the center of three concentric circles of radii , , and . The area of the shaded region in the diagram is of the area of the unshaded region. What is the radian measure of the acute angle formed by the two lines? (Note: radians is degrees.)
The whole picture is the biggest circle. What is its area? That is shaded + unshaded.
As shown in the figure, line segment is trisected by points and so that . Three semicircles of radius , , , and , have their diameters on , and are tangent to line at , , and , respectively. A circle of radius has its center on . The area of the region inside the circle but outside the three semicircles, shaded in the figure, can be expressed in the form
where , , , and are positive integers and and are relatively prime. What is ?
Start with the whole circle of radius 2. Its area?
Seven cookies of radius inch are cut from a circle of cookie dough, as shown. Neighboring cookies are tangent, and all except the center cookie are tangent to the edge of the dough. The leftover scrap is reshaped to form another cookie of the same thickness. What is the radius in inches of the scrap cookie?
Rectangle lies in a plane with and . The rectangle is rotated clockwise about , then rotated clockwise about the point moved to after the first rotation. What is the length of the path traveled by point ?
This problem also appears in the book as 15.1.8.
Mary divides a circle into sectors. The central angles of these sectors, measured in degrees, are all integers and they form an arithmetic sequence. What is the degree measure of the smallest possible sector angle?
A number of linked rings, each cm thick, are hanging on a peg. The top ring has an outside diameter of cm. The outside diameter of each of the outer rings is cm less than that of the ring above it. The bottom ring has an outside diameter of cm. What is the distance, in cm, from the top of the top ring to the bottom of the bottom ring?
In the figure below, congruent semicircles lie on the diameter of a large semicircle, with their diameters covering the diameter of the large semicircle with no overlap. Let be the combined area of the small semicircles and be the area of the region inside the large semicircle but outside the semicircles. The ratio is . What is ?
Three circles with radius are mutually tangent. What is the total area of the circles and the region bounded by them, as shown in the figure?
The figure below shows circles of radius within a larger circle. All the intersections occur at points of tangency. What is the area of the region, shaded in the figure, inside the larger circle but outside all the circles of radius ?
Three semicircles of radius are constructed on diameter of a semicircle of radius . The centers of the small semicircles divide into four line segments of equal length, as shown. What is the area of the shaded region that lies within the large semicircle but outside the smaller semicircles?
Circles , , and each have radius . Circles and share one point of tangency. Circle has a point of tangency with the midpoint of . What is the area inside circle but outside circle and circle ?
If circular arcs and have centers at and , respectively, then there exists a circle tangent to both and , and to . If the length of is , then what is the circumference of the circle?
In this section you will be able to turn touching circles and tangent lines into right triangles by drawing every radius.
Two circles touch. The line through their centers passes through the touching point. Draw every radius you can, and right triangles appear.
Three facts do most of the work. Touching circles: the centers are apart (outside) or apart (inside). A radius to a tangent point is perpendicular to the tangent.
Look: two radii to a common tangent are parallel. Together with the center line they make a right trapezoid, so the tangent has length .
In geometry problems with circles, always try to draw all the important radii (that is, connect the center to every important point on the circle).
A circle with diameter of length is internally tangent at to a circle of radius . Square is constructed with and on the larger circle, tangent at to the smaller circle, and the smaller circle outside . The length of can be written in the form , where and are integers. Find .
Let be the center of the big circle. The circles touch at , so , the small center and are on one line, and is on it too. How far is from ?
A machine-shop cutting tool has the shape of a notched circle, as shown. The radius of the circle is cm, the length of is cm and that of is cm. The angle is a right angle. Find the square of the distance (in centimeters) from to the center of the circle.
Put the center at the origin and , with straight above and to its right. What are and ?
Points and lie on a circle centered at , and . A second circle is internally tangent to the first and tangent to both and . What is the ratio of the area of the smaller circle to that of the larger circle?
Circles with centers and have radii and , respectively, and are externally tangent. Points and on the circle with center and points and on the circle with center are such that and are common external tangents to the circles. What is the area of the concave hexagon ?
The diagram shows twenty congruent circles arranged in three rows and enclosed in a rectangle. The circles are tangent to one another and to the sides of the rectangle as shown in the diagram. The ratio of the longer dimension of the rectangle to the shorter dimension can be written as where and are positive integers. Find .
Externally tangent circles with centers at points and have radii of lengths and , respectively. A line externally tangent to both circles intersects ray at point . What is ?
Two circles of radius are externally tangent to each other and are internally tangent to a circle of radius at points and , as shown in the diagram. The distance can be written in the form , where and are relatively prime positive integers. What is ?
Circles and each have radius , and the distance between their centers is . Circle is the largest circle internally tangent to both and . Circle is internally tangent to both and and externally tangent to . What is the radius of ?
A circle of radius is tangent to a circle of radius . The sides of are tangent to the circles as shown, and the sides and are congruent. What is the area of ?
In the figure below, semicircles with centers at and and with radii and , respectively, are drawn in the interior of, and sharing bases with, a semicircle with diameter . The two smaller semicircles are externally tangent to each other and internally tangent to the largest semicircle. A circle centered at is drawn externally tangent to the two smaller semicircles and internally tangent to the largest semicircle. What is the radius of the circle centered at ?
Circles , and are externally tangent to each other, and internally tangent to circle . Circles and are congruent. Circle has radius and passes through the center of . What is the radius of circle ?
Circles and are externally tangent, and they are both internally tangent to circle . The radii of and are and , respectively, and the centers of the three circles are all collinear. A chord of is also a common external tangent of and . Given that the length of the chord is where , , and are positive integers, and are relatively prime, and is not divisible by the square of any prime, find .
Four congruent semicircles are inscribed in a square of side length so that their diameters are on the sides of the square, one endpoint of each diameter is at a vertex of the square, and adjacent semicircles are tangent to each other. A small circle centered at the center of the square is tangent to each of the four semicircles, as shown below. The diameter of the small circle can be written as , where , , , and are integers. What is ?
In this section you will be able to use the power of a point: every chord or secant through a point gives the same product of lengths.
Draw any chord through a point P. Multiply its two pieces. Turn the chord and do it again: the product never changes. That number is the point’s “power”.
The power of is : negative inside the circle, zero on it, positive outside. Every chord or secant through has .
A tangent is a secant whose two points have merged, so is the power too. That is why the two tangents from a point are equal.
From a point outside a circle, the two tangents to the circle are equal:
If chords and of a circle with center and radius intersect at a point inside the circle, then
If secants and of a circle with center intersect at a point outside the circle, then
where is the radius of the circle.
Power of a point is useful whenever a problem mixes circles and chord lengths: two segments of a chord (or secant) through the same point always have the same product.
Let be a diameter in a circle of radius . Let be a chord in the circle that intersects at a point such that and . What is ?
. First the product: by Power of a Point, . With , what is it?
Let be a parallelogram with . A circle tangent to sides , , and intersects diagonal at points and with , as shown. Suppose that , , and . Then the area of can be expressed in the form , where and are positive integers, and is not divisible by the square of any prime. Find .
Power of the point : the tangent length from , squared, equals . What is the tangent length from ?
The diameter of a circle of radius is extended to a point outside the circle so that . Point is chosen so that and line is perpendicular to line . Segment intersects the circle at a point between and . What is the area of ?
In , , and . A circle with center and radius intersects at points and . Moreover and have integer lengths. What is ?
Rectangles and are drawn such that are collinear. Also, all lie on a circle. If , , , and , what is the length of ?
In the adjoining figure, two circles with radii and are drawn with their centers units apart. At , one of the points of intersection, a line is drawn in such a way that the chords and have equal length. Find the square of the length of .
Triangle is inscribed in circle . Points and are on side with . Rays and meet again at and (other than ), respectively. If , , , , and , then , where and are relatively prime positive integers. Find .
In this section you will be able to spot cyclic quadrilaterals and use their angle rule, Ptolemy's theorem and Brahmagupta's formula.
Four points on a circle are special. Opposite angles add to 180°, and the diagonals know the sides: that is Ptolemy’s theorem.
Look for hidden circles. Two right angles that face each other, or two equal angles looking at the same side, mean the four points are concyclic.
Ptolemy turns side lengths into diagonals: . For a rectangle it is just the Pythagorean theorem.
In a cyclic quadrilateral,
You can draw a circle around the quadrilateral and use angle-chasing properties of circles, like the inscribed angle theorem. (This is Theorem 29.1.21 again.)
Sometimes a quadrilateral is not said to be inscribed in a circle. If its opposite angles add to , or its angles satisfy the inscribed angle theorem (for example, two equal angles looking at the same side), then it is cyclic. Then you can use every property of cyclic quadrilaterals, and of circles, because the quadrilateral can be inscribed in a circle.
In a cyclic quadrilateral , the product of the diagonals equals the sum of the products of the two pairs of opposite sides:
A cyclic quadrilateral with side lengths has area
where is the semiperimeter.
To find the area of a cyclic quadrilateral:
Isosceles triangle has , and a circle with radius is tangent to line at and to line at . What is the area of the circle that passes through vertices , , and ?
Let be the center of the radius- circle and draw radii , . What are and ?
A hexagon is inscribed in a circle. Five of the sides have length and the sixth, denoted by , has length . Find the sum of the lengths of the three diagonals that can be drawn from .
Label the hexagon and let , , . Equal arcs give equal chords. Which other diagonals equal and ?
A quadrilateral is inscribed in a circle of radius . Three of the sides of this quadrilateral have length . What is the length of the fourth side?
This problem also appears in the book as 34.7.
Isosceles triangle has , and a circle with radius is tangent to line at and to line at . What is the area of the circle that passes through vertices , , and ?
Triangle is an isosceles right triangle with . Let be the midpoint of hypotenuse . Points and lie on sides and , respectively, so that and is a cyclic quadrilateral. Given that triangle has area , the length can be written as , where , , and are positive integers and is not divisible by the square of any prime. What is the value of ?
Let be a cyclic quadrilateral. The side lengths of are distinct integers less than such that . What is the largest possible value of ?
Triangle is equilateral with side length . Suppose that is the center of the inscribed circle of this triangle. What is the area of the circle passing through , , and ?
In this section you will be able to mix every circle tool of the chapter on contest problems.
The rest of the practice set, from AMC 10 warm-ups to two late AIME problems. Draw the radii first, then decide: sector, tangent, power of a point or cyclic quadrilateral?
Semicircle has diameter of length . Circle lies tangent to at a point and intersects at points and . If and , then the area of is , where and are relatively prime positive integers, and is a positive integer not divisible by the square of any prime. What is ?
Three concentric circles have radii , , and . An equilateral triangle of side length has one vertex on each circle. What is ?
Eight circles of radius can be placed tangent to of so that the circles are sequentially tangent to each other, with the first circle being tangent to and the last circle being tangent to , as shown. Similarly, circles of radius can be placed tangent to in the same manner. The inradius of can be expressed as , where and are relatively prime positive integers. Find .
Let be the set of circles in the coordinate plane that are tangent to each of the three circles with equations , , and . What is the sum of the areas of all circles in ?
In , , , , and is the midpoint of . What is the sum of the radii of the circles inscribed in and ?
Triangle has , , and . Let be the intersection of the internal angle bisectors of . What is ?
Circles with radii , , and are mutually externally tangent. What is the area of the triangle determined by the points of tangency?
A triangle with sides of , , and has both an inscribed and a circumscribed circle. What is the distance between the centers of those circles?
Let be a right triangle with , , and . Let be the inscribed circle. Construct with on and on , such that is perpendicular to and tangent to . Construct with on and on such that is perpendicular to and tangent to . Let be the inscribed circle of and the inscribed circle of . The distance between the centers of and can be written as . What is ?
Right triangle has side lengths , , and . A circle centered at is tangent to line at and passes through . A circle centered at is tangent to line at and passes through . What is ?
Let be a diameter of a circle and let be a point on with . Let and be points on the circle such that and is a second diameter. What is the ratio of the area of to the area of ?
A collection of circles in the upper half-plane, all tangent to the -axis, is constructed in layers as follows. Layer consists of two circles of radii and that are externally tangent. For , the circles in are ordered according to their points of tangency with the -axis. For every pair of consecutive circles in this order, a new circle is constructed externally tangent to each of the two circles in the pair. Layer consists of the circles constructed in this way. Let , and for every circle denote by its radius. What is