In the figure above with tangent line and secant line ,
|
(1)
|
(Jurgensen et al. 1963, p. 346).
The line tangent to a circle of radius centered at
through
can be found by solving the equation
|
(4)
|
giving
|
(5)
|
Two of these four solutions give tangent lines, as illustrated above, and the lengths of these lines are equal (Casey 1888, p. 29).
See also
Chord,
Circle,
Circle-Circle Tangents,
Monge's
Problem,
Tangent Line
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References
Casey, J. A Sequel to the First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid, Containing an Easy Introduction
to Modern Geometry with Numerous Examples, 5th ed., rev. enl. Dublin: Hodges,
Figgis, & Co., 1888.Jurgensen, R. C.; Donnelly, A. J.;
and Dolciani, M. P. Th. 42 in Modern
Geometry: Structure and Method. Boston, MA: Houghton-Mifflin, 1963.Referenced
on Wolfram|Alpha
Circle Tangent Line
Cite this as:
Weisstein, Eric W. "Circle Tangent Line."
From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/CircleTangentLine.html
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