Question

What is the general equation of a circle centered at the point (h, k)?

Answer 1

@mathstudent55

Answer 2

(x-h)^2+(y-k)^2=r^2 Is the equation.

Why? Well, if you think about the pythagorean theorem, which is basically all this is, you'll see that the hypotenuse is now the radius. This makes sense, since you're basically drawing a line all the way around at this constant hypotenuse.

The -h and -k parts might seem confusing, but really it's just saying that in order for you to be at the center of the circle, the x and y need to be equal to those points in order to equal 0.

Try to draw it out on a piece of paper by picking a random small number for x, h, k, and r and draw a few points on graph paper for what the y should be, and you'll see a circle emerge and you'll start to understand much better than what I could ever tell you.