Question

Determine the value of the indicated segment length. Assume that lines which appear to be tangent are tangent.

Answer 1

The tangent lines are perpendicular to the diameter. Hence, we have a right triangle given:

Now, we can use the Pythagorean theorem to find the missing segment length.

Therefore, we can write the next equation:

Let set x for the missing segment length.

$12^2=9.6^2+x^2$

Solve for x:

$\begin{gathered} x^2=12^2-9.6^2 \\ x=\sqrt[]{12^2-9.6^2} \\ x=7.2 \end{gathered}$

Hence, the correct answer is option C.