Let TU and VW be chords of a circle, which intersect at S, as shown. If ST = 3, TU = 15, and VW = 3, then find SW. ​

Answered yesterday by geno

https://web2.0calc.com/questions/geometry-please-help-explain#r1

Let TU and VW be chords of a circle, which intersect at S, as shown. If ST = 3, TU = 15, and VW = 3, then find SW.

Euclid's Proposition 36, book 3: https://mathcs.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/bookIII/propIII36.html

Euclid's Proposition 36, book 3 states that ST*SU=SW*SV

Since we want to find SW to get SV, we can change SW to x.

We already know the other lengths:

ST=3

SU=18

SW=x

SV=x-3

So, 3(18)=x(x-3).

From here, we see that when expanded, this becomes 54=x^2-3x.

Solving the quadratic, we see that SW is 12, therefore SV is 9.

EDIT: Or, you could refer to the link in @above....(the steps and reasoning are slightly different, you can look there if you do not understand what I am talking about...)

:)