Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • The equation of a circle C is x plus 3

  • squared plus y minus 4 squared is equal to 49.

  • What are its center h, k and its radius r?

  • So let's just remind ourselves what a circle is.

  • You have some point, let's call that h, k.

  • The circle is the set of all points that

  • are equidistant from that point.

  • So let's take the set of all points that

  • are, say, r away from h, k.

  • So let's say that this distance right over here

  • is r, and so we want all of the set of points that are exactly

  • r away.

  • So all the points x comma y that are exactly r way.

  • And so you could imagine you could rotate around

  • and all of these points are going to be exactly r away.

  • And I'm going to try my best to draw at least a

  • somewhat perfect looking circle.

  • I won't be able to do a perfect job of it, but you get a sense.

  • All of these are exactly r away, at least

  • if I were to draw it properly.

  • They are r away.

  • So how do we find an equation in terms of r and h, k, and x

  • and y that describes all these points?

  • Well, we know how to find the distance between two

  • points on a coordinate plane.

  • In fact, it comes straight out of the Pythagorean theorem.

  • If we were to draw a vertical line right over here, that

  • essentially is the change in the vertical axis between these two

  • points, up here, we're at y, here we're k,

  • so this distance is going to be y minus k.

  • We can do the exact same thing on the horizontal axis.

  • This x-coordinate is x while this x-coordinate is h.

  • So this is going to be x minus h is this distance.

  • And this is a right triangle, because by definition, we're

  • saying, hey, we're measuring vertical distance here.

  • We're measuring horizontal distance here,

  • so these two things are perpendicular.

  • And so from the Pythagorean theorem,

  • we know that this squared plus this squared must

  • be equal to our distance squared,

  • and this is where the distance formula comes from.

  • So we know that x minus h squared plus y minus k squared

  • must be equal to r squared.

  • This is the equation for the set--

  • this describes any x and y that satisfies

  • this equation will sit on this circle.

  • Now, with that out of the way, let's go answer their question.

  • The equation of the circle is this thing.

  • And this looks awfully close to what we just wrote,

  • we just have to make sure that we

  • don't get confused with the negatives.

  • Remember, it has to be in the form x minus h, y minus k.

  • So let's write it a little bit differently.

  • Instead of x plus 3 squared, we can

  • write that as x minus negative 3 squared.

  • And then plus-- well this is already

  • in the form-- plus y minus 4 squared

  • is equal to, instead of 49, we can just call that 7 squared.

  • And so now it becomes pretty clear

  • that our h is negative 3-- I want

  • to do that in the red color-- that our h is negative 3,

  • and that our k is positive 4, and that our r is 7.

  • So we could say h comma k is equal to negative 3 comma

  • positive 4.

  • Make sure to get-- you know you might say,

  • hey, there's a negative 4 here, no.

  • But look, it's minus k, minus 4.

  • So k is 4.

  • Likewise, it's minus h.

  • You might say, hey, maybe h is a positive 3,

  • but no you're subtracting the h.

  • So you'd say minus negative 3, and similarly, the radius is 7.

The equation of a circle C is x plus 3

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it