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I have a word problem:
A pipe is against a wall. There is a point on the circumference that is both ten inches from the wall and five inches from the ground. Give two possibilities for the radius of the pipe.
(Crying)
I guess that it has something to do with substituting (10,5) in the standard formula for a circle, but that leaves me with three variables.
Any help would be appreciated greatly.
Is the pipe running horizontally? ... vertically? ... some other direction???Quote:
Originally Posted by hokusai
seems to me the 2" from the ground is not necesssary to solve this unless there is some other info you haven't provided.
there is a diagram included, i have attempted to reproduce it:
http://i805.photobucket.com/albums/y...clediagram.png
the pipe is tangent to a right angled corner ...
the center of the circle is at the point
so, the circle's equation is
sub in the given values,and
, and solve for
... you will get two solutions.
wow that seems so much simpler than having the center at say (h,k) and trying to solve (10-h)^2 + (5-k)^2 = r^2
funny how the simplest and most obvious can be so elusive
much thanks