Question 4
A chord of a circle of radius subtends at the centre. Find the area of the corresponding:
(i) minor sector (that subtends at the centre), and (ii) major sector (that subtends at the centre). (Use .)
- Given a circle of radius .
- The area of a sector with central angle is given by:
- For the minor sector, the central angle is .
- For the major sector, the central angle is .
- We use the given approximation .
(i) minor sector (that subtends at the centre)
Step 1 · Calculate Area of Minor Sector
Given and .
(i)
(ii) major sector (that subtends at the centre)
Step 1 · Calculate Area of Major Sector
For the major sector, the central angle is .
(ii)
- Value of : Using instead of the specified , which leads to slight rounding differences.
- Sector vs. Segment: Confusing the area of a sector (pie slice) with the area of a segment (region bounded by the chord and the arc).
- Angle Selection: Mixing up the central angle of the minor sector () with that of the major sector ().
More questions in Exercise 6.3
Unless stated otherwise, use the approximation for .
Find the area of a sector of a circle with radius if the angle of the sector is .
Find the area of a quadrant of a circle whose circumference is .
The length of the minute hand of a clock is 7 cm. Find the area swept by the minute hand in 10 minutes.
A chord of a circle of radius subtends at the centre. Find the area of the corresponding:
(i) minor sector (that subtends at the centre), and (ii) major sector (that subtends at the centre). (Use .)
A chord of a circle of radius subtends an angle of at the centre of the circle. Find the areas of the corresponding minor and major segments of the circle. (Use and .)
A car has two wipers which do not overlap. Each wiper has a blade of length and sweeps through an angle of . Find the total area cleaned at each sweep of the blades.
A chord of a circle of radius subtends an angle of at the centre of the circle. Show that the area of the corresponding minor segment of the circle is equal to .
An equilateral triangle is inscribed in a circle of radius . Show that the ratio of the area of the triangle to the area of the circle is equal to .
A square is inscribed in a circle of radius . Show that the ratio of the area of the square to the area of the circle is equal to .
A hexagon is inscribed in a circle of radius . Show that the ratio of the area of the hexagon to the area of the circle is equal to . Can you see why the answer is exactly twice the answer to Question 8?