How to Find the Radius of a Circle From a Chord
Dealing with parts of a circle, such as radius and chord, are tasks that you may face in high school and college trigonometry courses. You also may have to solve these types of equations in career fields such as engineering, design and landscaping. You can find the radius of a circle if you have the length and height of a chord of that circle.
Instructions
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1
Multiply the height of the chord times four. For instance, if the height is two, multiply two times four to get eight.
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2
Square the length of the chord. If the length is four, for example, multiply four times four to get 16.
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3
Divide your answer from Step 2 by your answer from Step 1. In this example, 16 divided by eight is two.
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4
Add the height of the chord to your answer from Step 3. For example, two plus two equals four.
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5
Divide your answer from Step 4 by two to find the radius. Therefore in this instance, four divided by two equals two. The radius in this example is equal to two.
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References
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Comments
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Steve Cunningham
Sep 19, 2010
Nice I was really needing this calculation.My trouble is with creating a parabolic concentrator, is that one you design the parabolic shape and use your parabolic calculations to determine the design of the dish or trough, you only know the design shape which tells you the Height of the cord and the length of the cord. And of course the focal point of the parabola. But this does not help you actually cut the shape or design since you really need the radius to make your partial circle drawing. But from this calculation you posted, you have a way to calculate the radius of the circle without physically measuring 2 adjacent cords to find the radius manually after the fact. With this calculation I can determine my radius and thus I can use my router on the end of the router guide and also I will know the length in which to adjust the router guide in order to cut my design shape for the...
