Saturday 4 June 2022

Mathematics made simple : Chord

 A chord of a circle is a straight line segment whose endpoints both lie on a circular arc. 

The infinite line extension of a chord is a secant line, or just secant. 


Properties of chords of a circle are the following:


Chords are equidistant from the center if and only if their lengths are equal.


Equal chords are subtended by equal angles from the center of the circle.


A chord that passes through the center of a circle is called a diameter and is the longest chord of that specific circle.


If the line extensions (secant lines) of chords AB and CD intersect at a point P, then their lengths satisfy AP·PB = CP·PD (power of a point theorem).




The red segment BX is a chord
(as is the diameter segment AB).