If secant and the tangent of a circle intersect at a point outside the circle then prove that the area of the rectangle formed by the two line segments corresponding to the secant is equal to the area of the square formed by the line segment corresponding to the tangent
I find this question highly confusing. I do not know what this means. If you could please explain that to me and solve it if possible.
Circle geometry: nonparallel tangent and secant problem
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$\begingroup$
geometry
circles
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0So far I'm the only one who's up-voted this question or the answers other than my own. – 2012-12-22
2 Answers
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The best reading I can find is suggested by DonAntonio. We are asked to prove $|AB|^2=|AC||AD|$
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0OK, that's the "knowing the solution" component I was referring to. This is really not possible to guess from the OP... – 2012-12-21
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Others have answered this, but here is a source of further information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_of_a_point
Here's a problem in which the result is relied on:
The result goes all the way back (23 centuries) to Euclid (the first human who ever lived, with the exception of those who didn't write books on geometry that remain famous down to the present day):
http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/bookIII/propIII36.html
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1Very cool. That is a very interesting distinction you give to Euclid, as well :) – 2012-12-21