Question

An angle t is drawn from the center of the unit circle. Find a formula in terms of t for the straight line distance d between the points where the two radii meet the unit circle. Hint: By rotating the picture, you may assume that one of the radii meets the circle at the point (1,0)

Answer 1

Answer:

$d = \sqrt{2}\cdot \sqrt {1-\cos t - \sin t}$

Step-by-step explanation:

Let suppose that one of the radii meets the circle at the point (1,0). The straight line distance formula is:

$d = \sqrt{(\cos t - 1)^{2}+(\sin t - 1)^{2}}$

$d = \sqrt{(\cos^{2}t - 2\cdot \cos t + 1)+(\sin^{2}t - 2\cdot \sin t + 1)}$

$d = \sqrt{2-2\cdot (\cos t + \sin t )}$

$d = \sqrt{2}\cdot \sqrt {1-\cos t - \sin t}$