Question

help!!! with geometry I've been stuck on this question!

Answer 1

A line that is tangent to a circle will intersect with a line representing the radius of a circle at a 90 degree angle. As in the angle BAO is 90 degrees, making the triangle drawn in the figure a right triangle.

Since the figure drawn is a right triangle, we are allowed to use pythagorean theorem. The line segment AB is 17000 and the line segment AO is 4000. The line segment OB would represent the hypotenuse of the triangle, so the length of OB can be found by solving
\(17000^{2} + 4000^{2} = |OB|^{2}\)

\(|OB| = \sqrt{17000^{2} + 4000^{2}}\)

Once you get the length of OB, you can just subtract 4000 to get your answer. You're looking for the length of BC in this problem, so thats why you do the length of OB - 4000 to get your final answer. Hope that makes sense :)

Answer 2

well it makes sense but idk maybe my calculations are off I got a really high number and my answer choices are 74 32 106 and 37 so

Answer 3

ill do it again

Answer 4

Those answers don't make sense to me personally, lol. I would get approximately 13464 miles. Which to me makes sense. Weird.

Answer 5

oh no thats what i got too haha just checked i was look at the wrong problem so its right haha

Answer 6

Lol, okay, good.

Answer 7

thanks so much for helping(:

Answer 8

No problem :)