ACT Math : Circles

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for ACT Math

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Example Questions

Example Question #2 : How To Find The Length Of The Diameter

What is the diameter of a semi-circle that has an area of ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

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 .

Example Question #4 : How To Find The Length Of The Diameter

A circle has an area of .  What is the diameter of the circle?  

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The equation for the area of a circle is , which in this case equals .  Therefore,  The only thing squared that equals an integer (which is not a perfect root) is that number under a square root.  Therefore, .  Since diameter is twice the radius, 

Example Question #1 : Diameter

Find the diameter given the radius is .

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Diameter is simply twice the radius. Therefore, .

Example Question #2 : Diameter

Find the length of the diameter of a circle given the area is .

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To solve, simply use the formula for the area of a circle, solve for r, and multiply by 2 to get the diameter. Thus,

Example Question #6 : How To Find The Length Of The Diameter

In a group of students, it was decided that a pizza would be divided according to its crust size. Every student wanted 3 inches of crust (measured from the outermost point of the pizza). If the pizza in question had a diameter of 14 inches, what percentage of the pizza was wasted by this manner of cutting the pizza? Round to the nearest hundredth.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

What we are looking at is a way of dividing the pizza according to arc lengths of the crust. Thus, we need to know the total circumference first. Since the diameter is , we know that the circumference is . Now, we want to ask how many ways we can divide up the pizza into pieces of  inch crust. This is:

 or approximately  pieces.

What you need to do is take this amount and subtract off . This is the amount of crust that is wasted. You can then merely divide it by the original amount of divisions:

(You do not need to work in exact area or length. These relative values work fine.) 

This is about  of the pizza that is wasted.

Example Question #2 : How To Find The Length Of The Diameter

A circle has an area of  . What is its diameter?

Possible Answers:

 

 

 

 

 

Correct answer:

 

Explanation:

To solve a question like this, first remember that the area of a circle is defined as:

For your data, this is:

To solve for , first divide both sides by . Then take the square root of both sides. Thus you get:

The diameter of the circle is just double that:

 

Rounding to the nearest hundredth, you get .

Example Question #1 : Diameter And Chords

Let  represent the area of a circle and  represent its circumference. Which of the following equations expresses  in terms of

Possible Answers:


Correct answer:

Explanation:

The formula for the area of a circle is , and the formula for circumference is . If we solve for C in terms of r, we get
.

We can then substitute this value of r into the formula for the area:

 

Example Question #531 : Plane Geometry

A circle has a radius of . What is the ratio of its circumference to its area?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

1. Find the circumference:

 

2. Find the area:

 

3. Divide the circumference by the area:

Example Question #532 : Plane Geometry

How far must a racehorse run in a  lap race where the course is a circle with an area of ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the answer, we need to first find the circumference of the circle then mulitply that by 4 because the racehorse is running 4 laps.

 

We know that the area of the circle is . We can then find the radius.

 

 

Because , our diameter is 12.

We can now find the circumference.

Multiply the circumference by 4 (our racehorse is running 4 laps) to find the answer.

Example Question #1 : How To Find The Area Of A Circle

If the equation of a circle is (x – 7)+ (y + 1)= 81, what is the area of the circle?

Possible Answers:

81π

6561π

49π

18π

Correct answer:

81π

Explanation:

The equation is already in a circle equation, and the right side of the equation stands for r2 → r= 81 and r = 9

The area of a circle is πr2, so the area of this circle is 81π.

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