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Thursday, January 16, 2014

Circular Segment Problems

Category: Plane Geometry, Trigonometry

"Published in Vacaville, California, USA"

Find the area of the shaded region in the figure:

Photo by Math Principles in Everyday Life

Solution:

Consider the given figure above

Photo by Math Principles in Everyday Life

The area of a circular segment is the difference of the area of circular sector and a triangle. 


The area of a circular sector is given by the formula


Substitute the values of r and θ, we have


Since the unit of area is square units, then the unit of an angle must be in radians since it is a unit less value of angle. Let's convert the unit of an angle in radians as follows




The area of a triangle given the two sides and the adjacent angle is given by the formula


Since the triangle is inscribed in a circle whose vertex is a center of a circle, then it follows that a = b = r. The above equation becomes

  


Substitute the values of r and θ, we have







Therefore, the area of circular segment is