Question

What is the value of a + b? You may assume that the ray is tangent to the circle picture in comments

Answer 1

https://ccsd2767-secc-ccl.gradpoint.com/Resource/2208722,77F,0,0,0,0,0/Assets/testitemimages/geometry_b/circles/mc057-1.jpg

Answer 2

A radius of a circle and a tangent to that circle would make an angle of 90 degrees, since the tangent is perpendicular to the circle

Answer 3

@Mertsj
"The angle formed by the chord and the tangent is 1/2 the arc."

wouldn't that make the 53 degree angle 63 degrees? it's half of 126. Which makes a+b= 90 but with a lot more work...

a+b is 90 degrees since it is the angle between a radius and a tangent line, which is a right angle. We're only asked the value of a+b, not the values of a and b.