435,721 views
10 votes
10 votes
Solve for x. Please help I don’t understand how to do this

Solve for x. Please help I don’t understand how to do this-example-1
User Mradziwon
by
2.7k points

1 Answer

11 votes
11 votes

Answer:

x = 5

Explanation:

There's a Secant Theorem that someone else figured out (waaaay back in history) we just need to memorize it. So a secant is a line that touches the circle in two places. Your picture has two secants that both go thru the same point that's outside the circle. The secants each have a bit that's inside the circle and a bit that's outside the circle. And we could add together the inside and outside bits and get a total for the whole thing.

The secant theorem says that the outside piece × the whole thing on one secant = the outside piece × the whole thing on the other secant.

For the secant on top the "outside" bit is 9 and the whole thing is (2x+1+9). We'll times these together.

For the bottom secant the outside piece is 10 and the whole thing is (x+3+10). We'll multiply these together.

9(2x+1+9)=10(x+3+10)

simplify.

9(2x+10) = 10(x+13)

distribute.

18x + 90 = 101x + 130

combine like terms.

8x + 90 = 130

subtract 90

8x = 40

divide by 8

x = 5

see image.

Solve for x. Please help I don’t understand how to do this-example-1
User Cunningham
by
2.8k points