Big Ideas Math Geometry, 2014
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Big Ideas Math Geometry, 2014 View details
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Exercise 3 Page 552

A diameter of a circle is a chord that passes through the center of the circle.

Example Solution: KN

Practice makes perfect
Before naming the diameter from the graph, let's review some important definitions about circles.
  • Radius: A segment whose endpoints are the center and any point on the circumference on a circle.
  • Chord: A segment whose endpoints are on the circumference of a circle.
  • Diameter: A chord that contains the center of the circle.
  • Secant: A line that intersects a circle in two points.
  • Tangent: A line in the plane of a circle that intersects the circle in exactly one point — the point of tangency.

Now, consider the given diagram. We can see that KN is a chord that passes through the center of the circle P.

Therefore, according to the definitions, KN is a diameter of the circle P. Note that this is only one of the many names this chord can take.