Question

What is the length of the tangent line in the picture?

Answer 1

Answer:

x = -2

Step-by-step explanation:

The tangent line has length "x + 8"

The secant line has length "x + 6 + 5", where

5 is the inner part

x + 6 is the outer part

Now,

the secant-tangent theorem tells us that square of the tangent line is equal to the outer segment of secant line multiplied by length of whole secant line.

So, we can say:

$(x+8)^2 = (x+6)(x+6+5)$

We can solve for x shown below:

$(x+8)^2 = (x+6)(x+6+5)\\(x+8)^2=(x+6)(x+11)\\x^2+16x+64=x^2+17x+66\\17x-16x=64-66\\x=-2$

The value of x is -2