An equilateral triangle of side √3cm is inscribed in a circle. Find the radius of the circle.
Answer Details
In an equilateral triangle, all the sides are of equal length and each angle is 60 degrees. Let's draw an equilateral triangle with side √3 cm inscribed in a circle. Since the triangle is equilateral, we know that the circumcenter (center of the circle that passes through all the vertices of the triangle) is also the centroid (point of intersection of the medians). The median of an equilateral triangle is the line segment from a vertex to the midpoint of the opposite side. Therefore, the circumcenter is also the midpoint of any side of the triangle. Let's choose one side of the triangle and label its midpoint as point M. We can draw a perpendicular line from M to the opposite vertex of the triangle, which will bisect the side and form a right triangle with one leg being half of the side of the triangle and the other leg being the radius of the circle. Using the Pythagorean theorem, we can solve for the radius: (radius)^2 = (√3/2)^2 + (1/2)^2 (radius)^2 = 3/4 + 1/4 (radius)^2 = 1 radius = 1 cm Therefore, the radius of the circle is 1 cm. Answer: 1 cm.