Can you generalise this?

Geometry Level 4

Suppose that A A , B B and M M are points on a circle such that M M is the midpoint of arc A B AB . Let C C be an arbitrary point on the arc A M B AMB such that A C AC is longer than B C BC . Let D D be the foot of the perpendicular from M M to A C AC .

If the length of D C DC is 5 and the length of B C BC is 2, find the length of A D AD .


The answer is 7.

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2 solutions

Here is a generalization of A D AD = B C BC + C D CD .

Daniel Liu
Jan 2, 2016

Note that A D = B C + C D = 2 + 5 = 7 AD=BC+CD=2+5=7 .

This follows directly from Archimede's Broken Chord Theorem.

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