Question

The diagram shows a sphere with center O and a radius of 4 inches that has been cut by a plane. The cross-section formed by the plane is shaded.

Which shape is a possible representation of the cross section?

Answer 1

This is the image for the question:

Answer 2

These are the answer choices:

Answer 3

in general all cross-sections of spheres are circles (that eliminates the third and fourth choice, since these are ellipses). there are some exceptions but I'll not discuss them here.

notice how the cross section is smaller in area than the center. the further you take the cross section away from the center of the sphere, the smaller it gets.

with that in mind, which is a better representation of that cross-section? choice 1 or 2?