A chord, 7cm long, is drawn in a circle with radius 3.7cm. Calculate the distance of the chord from the centre of the circle

Answer Details

To find the distance of the chord from the center of the circle, we can use the formula: distance from center = √(r^2 - (c/2)^2) where r is the radius of the circle and c is the length of the chord. In this case, r = 3.7 cm and c = 7 cm. Therefore: distance from center = √(3.7^2 - (7/2)^2) = √(13.69 - 12.25) = √1.44 = 1.2 cm Therefore, the distance of the chord from the center of the circle is 1.2 cm. The logic behind the formula is that the distance from the center of the circle to the chord is the perpendicular distance from the center to the line that contains the chord. If we draw radii from the center of the circle to the endpoints of the chord, we can form a right triangle with the chord as the hypotenuse. The distance from the center to the chord is the height of this triangle, which can be found using the Pythagorean theorem.