Bisect means to divide a geometric figure into two exactly equal parts.
See solution.
Practice makes perfect
In this exercise, we will describe what it means to bisect a chord. Remember that a chord is a segment whose endpoints lie on a circle.
To bisect a geometric figure is to divide it into two exactly equal parts. With this definition, we can say that bisecting a chord means that the chord is split into two congruent segments by a line segment.
We should remember that there two specific cases about bisecting a chord. The first of them leads us to the Perpendicular Chord Bisector Theorem (Theorem 10.7).
Perpendicular Chord Bisector Theorem
If a diameter of a circle is perpendicular to a chord, then the diameter bisects the chord and its arc.
With this theorem, we can make conclusions about the sub-segments of the chord and the sub-arcs of its arc.
