+191 What is the shortest distance between the circles defined by $x^2-24x +y^2-32y+384=0$ and $x^2+24x +y^2+32y+384=0$? (I already tried but my answer which is $sqrt(24)$ appears to be wrong) Can anybody help please.
+118667 Hi OrangeJuice.
Welcome to our web2.0calc forum 
I have no idea how you got sqrt24 but this is what you need to do
1) these are both circles. So get them into centre-radius form. Have you done that yet? What did you get?
2) find the distance between the central points - (you should be able to see that the circles do not overlap)
3) subrtact the 2 radii.
It fell out nicely for me, with no sqrts in the final answer. I have not checked my answer though.
If you want more help then please interact with me. If I am not around I am sure someone else will fill the void.
**
Please no one race in with a final answer. Teaching answers are usually best.
+191 Hi, it looks like your support is really helpful!
Step 1 results:
The distance between the central points is sqrt(24^2+32^2) = 40 and subtracting the distances from the center of the circles gives me 32
After I followed your steps, I got 32 as my final answer and it appears to be correct.
P.S. Thanks!
+118667 OrangeJuice,
I have asked you to clarify something that you wrote on this post. Thanks
+191 Thanks, and, hopefully my response in the post https://web2.0calc.com/questions/number-theory_82500#r1 will also be clarifying.
