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A circular segment (in green) is enclosed between a secant/chord (the dashed line) and the arc whose endpoints equal the chord's (the arc shown above the green area). In geometry, a circular segment or disk segment (symbol: ⌓) is a region of a disk [1] which is "cut off" from the rest of the disk by a straight line.
Common lines and line segments on a circle, including a secant. A straight line can intersect a circle at zero, one, or two points. A line with intersections at two points is called a secant line, at one point a tangent line and at no points an exterior line. A chord is the line segment that joins two distinct points of a circle. A chord is ...
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 similarity yields an equation for ratios which is equivalent to the equation of the theorem given above: = | | | | = | | | | Next to the intersecting chords theorem and the tangent-secant theorem , the intersecting secants theorem represents one of the three basic cases of a more general theorem about two intersecting lines and a circle ...
Secant-, chord-theorem. For the intersecting secants theorem and chord theorem the power of a point plays the role of an invariant: . Intersecting secants theorem: For a point outside a circle and the intersection points , of a secant line with the following statement is true: | | | | = (), hence the product is independent of line .
If the angle subtended by the chord at the centre is 90°, then ℓ = r √2, where ℓ is the length of the chord, and r is the radius of the circle. If two secants are inscribed in the circle as shown at right, then the measurement of angle A is equal to one half the difference of the measurements of the enclosed arcs (⌢ and ⌢).
The word secant comes from Latin for "to cut", and a general secant line "cuts" a circle, intersecting it twice; this concept dates to antiquity and can be found in Book 3 of Euclid's Elements, as used e.g. in the intersecting secants theorem. 18th century sources in Latin called any non-tangential line segment external to a circle with one endpoint on the circumference a secans exterior.
The tangent-secant theorem can be proven using similar triangles (see graphic). Like the intersecting chords theorem and the intersecting secants theorem, the tangent-secant theorem represents one of the three basic cases of a more general theorem about two intersecting lines and a circle, namely, the power of point theorem.