All ACT Math Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #3 : How To Find The Length Of An Arc
What is the area of the sector of a circle with a central angle of degrees and a radius of ? Simplify any fractions and leave your answer in terms of .
The formula for the area of a sector of a circle is:
The central angle given is 120 thus:
Example Question #51 : Circles
A water wheel turns a arc every minute. If the radius of the wheel is , how far in meters does the wheel turn along its edge each minute?
If the radius is , then the circumference of the wheel is:
If the wheel turns each minute, then it turns of the circumference each minute.
Thus, the wheel turns each minute.
Example Question #4 : How To Find The Length Of An Arc
What is the length of the arc ?
The total area of the circle is and the area of the shaded region is .
If the area of the circle is , the radius can be found using the formula for the area of a circle:
For our data, this is:
Therefore,
Now, the circumference of the circle is defined as:
For our data, this is:
Now, we know that a sector is a percentage of the total area. This percentage is easily calculated:
So, the length of the arc will merely be the same percentage, but now applied to the circumference:
Example Question #21 : Circles
In the circle above, the length of arc BC is 100 degrees, and the segment AC is a diameter. What is the measure of angle ADB in degrees?
90
100
cannot be determined
40
80
40
Since we know that segment AC is a diameter, this means that the length of the arc ABC must be 180 degrees. This means that the length of the arc AB must be 80 degrees.
Since angle ADB is an inscribed angle, its measure is equal to half of the measure of the angle of the arc that it intercepts. This means that the measure of the angle is half of 80 degrees, or 40 degrees.
Example Question #2 : How To Find The Angle Of A Sector
What is the angle of a sector of area on a circle having a radius of ?
To begin, you should compute the complete area of the circle:
For your data, this is:
Now, to find the angle measure of a sector, you find what portion of the circle the sector is. Here, it is:
Now, multiply this by the total degrees in a circle:
Rounded, this is .
Example Question #1 : How To Find The Angle Of A Sector
What is the angle of a sector that has an arc length of on a circle of diameter ?
The first thing to do for this problem is to compute the total circumference of the circle. Notice that you were given the diameter. The proper equation is therefore:
For your data, this means,
Now, to compute the angle, note that you have a percentage of the total circumference, based upon your arc length:
Rounded to the nearest hundredth, this is .
Example Question #2 : Diameter
The perimeter of a circle is 36 π. What is the diameter of the circle?
18
72
6
3
36
36
The perimeter of a circle = 2 πr = πd
Therefore d = 36
Example Question #2 : How To Find The Length Of The Diameter
Two legs of a right triangle measure 3 and 4, respectively. What is the area of the circle that circumscribes the triangle?
For the circle to contain all 3 vertices, the hypotenuse must be the diameter of the circle. The hypotenuse, and therefore the diameter, is 5, since this must be a 3-4-5 right triangle.
The equation for the area of a circle is A = πr2.
Example Question #1 : Diameter
If a circle has an area of , what is the diameter of the circle?
1. Use the area to find the radius:
2. Use the radius to find the diameter:
Example Question #2 : How To Find The Length Of The Diameter
What is the diameter of a semi-circle that has an area of ?
To begin, be very careful to note that the question asks about a semi-circle—not a complete circle! This means that a complete circle composed out of two of these semi-circles would have an area of . Now, from this, we can use our area formula, which is:
For our data, this is:
Solving for , we get:
This can be simplified to:
The diameter is , which is or .