Topics / Geometry
Circles
Chords, tangents, inscribed angles, power of a point, arc length, sectors, inscribed/circumscribed circles
What you need to know
- An inscribed angle is half its intercepted arc; an angle in a semicircle is right.
- A tangent is perpendicular to the radius at the contact point, and the two tangent segments from an external point are equal.
- Power of a point: chords through satisfy ; a tangent and secant satisfy .
- Arc length and sector area .
How AMC 10 tests it
- Shaded regions (problems 3–12): circles in squares, semicircles on triangle sides; subtract sectors and triangles.
- Tangent lines from a point or a common tangent to two circles: draw radii to the tangency points to get a right triangle or right trapezoid.
- Problems 17–23: power of a point for a length, or a rope wrapping around a polygon giving a sum of sectors.
Standard approaches
- Draw the radii to every tangency point and chord endpoint; look for right angles and isosceles triangles.
- Convert inscribed angles to arcs, add, and convert back.
- When two chords, or a tangent and secant, pass through one point, write power of a point.
Worked example
Point lies outside a circle with center and radius . The two tangent segments from touch the circle at and , and . What is the area of the region bounded by , , and the minor arc ?
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
Solution. Since and bisects , triangle is a -- triangle with , so and . The kite has area . The central angle , so sector has area . The region is the kite minus the sector, .
The answer is .
Pitfalls
- Using the diameter where the radius belongs in ; the answer choices often differ by a factor of .
- Computing a sector with the inscribed angle instead of the central angle.
- In power of a point, using instead of (the full secant from ).
Traps that recur
- Assuming the inner corners lie on a circle of radius 3 (the table radius minus the mat width), rather than at distance x from the center. (2008 AMC 10A #25)
- Assuming the inner circle is the incircle of the triangle of centres, whose inradius is 1, or reading the picture's apparent symmetry as meaning the inner centre is equidistant from the three outer centres. (2025 AMC 10A #22)
- Losing a minus sign when writing the diameter, giving (sqrt 2 - 1)(sqrt 3 + 1) and the sum 5 in (B). (2025 AMC 10B #20)
- Finding only the small pipe wedged between the two and answering 1/9, forgetting that a pipe on the far side of the small one is also in contact with both. (2024 AMC 10B #21)
Problems, easiest first
A right triangle is inscribed in circle , and a right triangle is inscribed in circle . What is the ratio of the area of circle to the area of circle ?
The area of a circle whose circumference is is . What is the value of ?
A circle is centered at , is a diameter and is a point on the circle with . What is the degree measure of ?
Circles of diameter inch and inches have the same center. The smaller circle is painted red, and the portion outside the smaller circle and inside the larger circle is painted blue. What is the ratio of the blue-painted area to the red-painted area?
A region is bounded by semicircular arcs constructed on the side of a square whose sides measure , as shown. What is the perimeter of this region?
Circles of radius and are externally tangent and are circumscribed by a third circle, as shown in the figure. Find the area of the shaded region.
Each of the small circles in the figure has radius one. The innermost circle is tangent to the six circles that surround it, and each of those circles is tangent to the large circle and to its small-circle neighbors. Find the area of the shaded region.
What is the maximum number of possible points of intersection of a circle and a triangle?
In , , , and Let be the center of the circle containing , , and What is the degree measure of ?
In a plane, four circles with radii and are tangent to line at the same point but they may be on either side of . Region consists of all the points that lie inside exactly one of the four circles. What is the maximum possible area of region ?
For how many of the following types of quadrilaterals does there exist a point in the plane of the quadrilateral that is equidistant from all four vertices of the quadrilateral? - a square
- a rectangle that is not a square
- a rhombus that is not a square
- a parallelogram that is not a rectangle or a rhombus
- an …
In the figure below, congruent semicircles are drawn along a diameter of a large semicircle, with their diameters covering the diameter of the large semicircle with no overlap. Let be the combined area of the small semicircles and be the area of the region inside the large semicircle but outside the small …
Seven cookies of radius inch are cut from a circle of cookie dough, as shown. Neighboring cookies are tangent, and all except the center cookie are tangent to the edge of the dough. The leftover scrap is reshaped to form another cookie of the same thickness. What is the radius in inches of the scrap cookie?
The shaded region below is called a shark's fin falcata, a figure studied by Leonardo da Vinci. It is bounded by the portion of the circle of radius and center that lies in the first quadrant, the portion of the circle with radius and center that lies in the first quadrant, …
A regular hexagon has side length 6. Congruent arcs with radius 3 are drawn with the center at each of the vertices, creating circular sectors as shown. The region inside the hexagon but outside the sectors is shaded as shown. What is the area of the shaded region?
Three circles with radius 2 are mutually tangent. What is the total area of the circles and the region bounded by them, as shown in the figure?
Externally tangent circles with centers at points and have radii of lengths and , respectively. A line externally tangent to both circles intersects ray at point . What is ?
Keiko walks once around a track at exactly the same constant speed every day. The sides of the track are straight, and the ends are semicircles. The track has a width of meters, and it takes her seconds longer to walk around the outside edge of the track than around the inside edge. What is Keiko's speed in …
A circle of radius is inscribed in a semicircle, as shown. The area inside the semicircle but outside the circle is shaded. What fraction of the semicircle's area is shaded?
Points and lie on a circle centered at , each of and are tangent to the circle, and is equilateral. The circle intersects at . What is ?
Points and are on a circle of radius and . Point is the midpoint of the minor arc . What is the length of the line segment ?
The point is the center of the circle circumscribed about with and as shown. What is the degree measure of
A triangle with side lengths in the ratio is inscribed in a circle with radius 3. What is the area of the triangle?
Rolly wishes to secure his dog with an 8-foot rope to a square shed that is 16 feet on each side. His preliminary drawings are shown. Which of these arrangements give the dog the greater area to roam, and by how many square feet?
A square of area 40 is inscribed in a semicircle as shown. What is the area of the semicircle?
A circle is inscribed in a square, then a square is inscribed in this circle, and finally, a circle is inscribed in this square. What is the ratio of the area of the smallest circle to the area of the largest square?
An -foot by -foot bathroom floor is tiled with square tiles of size foot by foot. Each tile has a pattern consisting of four white quarter circles of radius foot centered at each corner of the tile. The remaining portion of the tile is shaded. How many square feet of the floor are shaded?
An annulus is the region between two concentric circles. The concentric circles in the figure have radii and , with . Let be a radius of the larger circle, let be tangent to the smaller circle at , and let be the radius of the larger circle that contains . Let , , and …
A square has sides of length , and a circle centered at one of its vertices has radius . What is the area of the union of the regions enclosed by the square and the circle?
A arc of circle A is equal in length to a arc of circle B. What is the ratio of circle A's area and circle B's area?
The figure below shows an equilateral triangle, a rhombus with a angle, and a regular hexagon, each of them containing some mutually tangent congruent disks. Let and respectively, denote the ratio in each case of the total area of the disks to the area of the enclosing polygon. Which of the …
A semicircle has diameter and chord of length parallel to . A smaller semicircle with diameter on and tangent to is cut from the larger semicircle, as shown below. What is the area of the resulting figure, shown shaded?
One side of an equilateral triangle of height lies on line . A circle of radius is tangent to line and is externally tangent to the triangle. The area of the region exterior to the triangle and the circle and bounded by the triangle, the circle, and line can be written as …
Abdul and Chiang are standing feet apart in a field. Bharat is standing in the same field as far from Abdul as possible so that the angle formed by his lines of sight to Abdul and Chiang measures . What is the square of the distance (in feet) between Abdul and Bharat?
Quadrilateral with side lengths is inscribed in a circle. The area interior to the circle but exterior to the quadrilateral can be written in the form where and are positive integers such that and have no common prime factor. What is
Isosceles triangle has , and a circle with radius is tangent to line at and to line at . What is the area of the circle that passes through vertices , , and
A regular hexagon of side length is inscribed in a circle. Each minor arc of the circle determined by a side of the hexagon is reflected over that side. What is the area of the region bounded by these reflected arcs?
Three equally spaced parallel lines intersect a circle, creating three chords of lengths and . What is the distance between two adjacent parallel lines?
As shown in the figure below, six semicircles lie in the interior of a regular hexagon with side length 2 so that the diameters of the semicircles coincide with the sides of the hexagon. What is the area of the shaded region — inside the hexagon but outside all of the semicircles?
Let be an isosceles triangle with and . Construct the circle with diameter , and let and be the other intersection points of the circle with the sides and , respectively. Let be the intersection of the …
The figure below shows circles of radius within a larger circle. All the intersections occur at points of tangency. What is the area of the region, shaded in the figure, inside the larger circle but outside all the circles of radius
Two circles of radius are externally tangent to each other and are internally tangent to a circle of radius at points and , as shown in the diagram. The distance can be written in the form , where and are relatively prime positive integers. What is ?
The diagram below shows the circular face of a clock with radius cm and a circular disk with radius cm externally tangent to the clock face at o'clock. The disk has an arrow painted on it, initially pointing in the upward vertical direction. Let the disk roll clockwise around the clock face. At what …
The closed curve in the figure is made up of congruent circular arcs each of length , where each of the centers of the corresponding circles is among the vertices of a regular hexagon of side . What is the area enclosed by the curve?
In the given circle, the diameter is parallel to , and is parallel to . The angles and are in the ratio . What is the degree measure of angle ?
Circles and each have radius 1. Circles and share one point of tangency. Circle has a point of tangency with the midpoint of . What is the area inside Circle but outside circle and circle ?
A square of side length and a circle of radius share the same center. What is the area inside the circle, but outside the square?
Many Gothic cathedrals have windows with portions containing a ring of congruent circles that are circumscribed by a larger circle. In the figure shown, the number of smaller circles is four. What is the ratio of the sum of the areas of the four smaller circles to the area of the larger circle?
An equilateral triangle has side length 6. What is the area of the region containing all points that are outside the triangle but not more than 3 units from a point on the triangle?
Points and lie on a circle centered at , and . A second circle is internally tangent to the first and tangent to both and . What is the ratio of the area of the smaller circle to that of the larger circle?
Two circles of radius are centered at and at What is the area of the intersection of the interiors of the two circles?
A circle of radius is surrounded by circles of radius as shown. What is ?
A circle passes through the three vertices of an isosceles triangle that has two sides of length and a base of length . What is the area of this circle?
Four circles of radius are each tangent to two sides of a square and externally tangent to a circle of radius , as shown. What is the area of the square?
A circle of radius is centered at . Square has side length . Sides and are extended past to meet the circle at and , respectively. What is the area of the shaded region in the figure, which is bounded by , , and the minor arc connecting and ?
The figure shown is called a trefoil and is constructed by drawing circular sectors about sides of the congruent equilateral triangles. What is the area of a trefoil whose horizontal base has length ?
Three circles of radius are externally tangent to each other and internally tangent to a larger circle. What is the radius of the large circle?
A semicircle of diameter sits at the top of a semicircle of diameter , as shown. The shaded area inside the smaller semicircle and outside the larger semicircle is called a lune. Determine the area of this lune.
The number of inches in the perimeter of an equilateral triangle equals the number of square inches in the area of its circumscribed circle. What is the radius, in inches, of the circle?
Three semicircles of radius are constructed on diameter of a semicircle of radius . The centers of the small semicircles divide into four line segments of equal length, as shown. What is the area of the shaded region that lies within the large semicircle but outside the smaller …
Spot's doghouse has a regular hexagonal base that measures one yard on each side. He is tethered to a vertex with a two-yard rope. What is the area, in square yards, of the region outside of the doghouse that Spot can reach?
Four distinct circles are drawn in a plane. What is the maximum number of points where at least two of the circles intersect?
Four congruent semicircles are inscribed in a square of side length so that their diameters are on the sides of the square, one endpoint of each diameter is at a vertex of the square, and adjacent semicircles are tangent to each other. A small circle centered at the center of the square is tangent to each of the …
A circle of radius is surrounded by three circles, whose radii are 1, 2, and 3, all externally tangent to the inner circle and externally tangent to each other, as shown in the diagram below. What is ?
Two straight pipes (circular cylinders), with radii and , lie parallel and in contact on a flat floor. The figure below shows a head-on view. What is the sum of the possible radii of a third parallel pipe lying on the same floor and in contact with both?
Circle and each have radius , and the distance between their centers is . Circle is the largest circle internally tangent to both and . Circle is internally tangent to both and and externally tangent to . What is the radius of ?
Let be the set of circles in the coordinate plane that are tangent to each of the three circles with equations , , and . What is the sum of the areas of all circles in ?
A disk of radius rolls all the way around the inside of a square of side length and sweeps out a region of area . A second disk of radius rolls all the way around the outside of the same square and sweeps out a region of area . The value of can be written as , where , …
Points and lie on circle in the plane. Suppose that the tangent lines to at and intersect at a point on the -axis. What is the area of ?
As shown in the figure, line segment is trisected by points and so that Three semicircles of radius and have their diameters on lie in the same halfplane determined by line , and are tangent to line at …
The diameter of a circle of radius is extended to a point outside the circle so that . Point is chosen so that and line is perpendicular to line . Segment intersects the circle at a point between and . What is the area of ?
Sides and of equilateral triangle are tangent to a circle at points and respectively. What fraction of the area of lies outside the circle?
Circles with centers and , having radii and , respectively, lie on the same side of line and are tangent to at and , respectively, with between and . The circle with center is externally tangent to each of the other two circles. What is the area of triangle …
What is the area of the region enclosed by the graph of the equation
A quadrilateral is inscribed in a circle of radius . Three of the sides of this quadrilateral have length . What is the length of the fourth side?
In , and . Squares and are constructed outside of the triangle. The points , and lie on a circle. What is the perimeter of the triangle?
Eight semicircles line the inside of a square with side length 2 as shown. What is the radius of the circle tangent to all of these semicircles?
In , , and . A circle with center and radius intersects at points and . Moreover and have integer lengths. What is ?
In triangle , , , and . Distinct points , , and lie on segments , , and , respectively, such that , , and . The …
Let be a triangle with sides and . For , if and and are the points of tangency of the incircle of to the sides and respectively, then is a triangle with side lengths and if it exists. What is …
A circle with center has area . Triangle is equilateral, is a chord on the circle, , and point is outside . What is the side length of ?
Two circles lie outside regular hexagon . The first is tangent to , and the second is tangent to . Both are tangent to lines and . What is the ratio of the area of the second circle to that of the first circle?
Circles centered at and each have radius , as shown. Point is the midpoint of , and . Segments and are tangent to the circles centered at and , respectively, and is a common tangent. What is the area of the shaded region ?
Circles with centers and have radius 3 and 8, respectively. A common internal tangent intersects the circles at and , respectively. Lines and intersect at , and . What is ?
Circles with centers and have radii and , respectively, and are externally tangent. Points and on the circle with center and points and on the circle with center are such that and are common external tangents to the circles. What is the area of the concave hexagon …
Let be a diameter of a circle and be a point on with . Let and be points on the circle such that and is a second diameter. What is the ratio of the area of to the area of ?
Two distinct lines pass through the center of three concentric circles of radii 3, 2, and 1. The area of the shaded region in the diagram is of the area of the unshaded region. What is the radian measure of the acute angle formed by the two lines? (Note: radian is degree.)
Circles and are externally tangent to each other, and internally tangent to circle . Circles and are congruent. Circle has radius and passes through the center of . What is the radius of circle ?
A circle of radius is internally tangent to two circles of radius at points and , where is a diameter of the smaller circle. What is the area of the region, shaded in the picture, that is outside the smaller circle and inside each of the two larger circles?
Square has side length . A semicircle with diameter is constructed inside the square, and the tangent to the semicircle from intersects side at . What is the length of ?
In triangle we have , , . Point is on the circumscribed circle of the triangle so that bisects angle . What is the value of ?
Riders on a Ferris wheel travel in a circle in a vertical plane. A particular wheel has radius feet and revolves at the constant rate of one revolution per minute. How many seconds does it take a rider to travel from the bottom of the wheel to a point vertical feet above the bottom?
A round table has radius . Six rectangular place mats are placed on the table. Each place mat has width and length as shown. They are positioned so that each mat has two corners on the edge of the table, these two corners being end points of the same side of length . Furthermore, the mats are positioned …