Sunday, December 7, 2008

The length of the intercept cut off from a line by a circle

Equation of the circle: x² + y² = a²

Equation of the line: y = mx+c

A line intersects a circle if the length of the perpendicular to the line from the centre of the circle is less than the radius of the circle.

If it intercepts, the length of the intercept is

2√([[a²(1+m²)-c²]/(1+m²) ]

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