NAME

DATE

BAND

ANGLES AND CIRCLES

ADV GEOMETRY | PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE

Warm Up I: Angles and Circles!

1. We have a point and a line drawn below. We define the distance between any point and any line as the
shortest distance between the point and the line.
Find the distance between the
point and the line in millimeters.
(Be sure to draw the line segment
that that you measured.)

Make a conjecture about the relationship between the line segment you drew and the line.

What evidence do you have that your statement is true? What reasoning could you use to justify your
conjecture?

2. (a) Were giving you an angle Draw a point that is equidistant from both rays of the angle.
(b) Ms. Stutt says you can use that point to draw a circle that is tangent to both rays. Figure out a way,
and explain how Ms. Stutt knew that this was possible!
Definition: A circle is tangent to a line if it only intersects the line once.

(c) Sad. There is only one circle. But arent there more circles you can draw that are tangent to both rays? There
are! Draw moar! MOAR! And dont forget to draw the centers.
Do you have at least 5 circles drawn? No? Draw more. Better now? Good. You may move on.
(d) Look carefully at all the centers of these circles youve drawn. Make a conjecture about these centers.
Conjecture: _______________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________

Note: If your conjecture on the previous page was that all the centers of these circles formed a single line, thats
good But you can do better How does that line relate to the angle?
Heres some help
Conjecture: If you have an angle, and you plot the centers of circles that are tangent to both rays of the angle,
these points form a line which: _______________________________________________________________.
We can extend/rewrite that a bit!
Conjecture: If you have an angle, all points which are equidistant from the rays of the angle lie on a line which:
_________________________________________________________________________________________.
Now heres the rub. How the heck do ya prove it? 1 Dont come up with a formal proof right now. You just want
to come up with a basic plan for the proof.
Heres a diagram to help you. There is also
one on the next page if you need it.

Okay, maaaaaybe there is a beautifully simple argument you can make with patty paper. And you should feel free to do that.
But then we want you to come up with an argument without patty paper. The reason? Because we are going to have you
visualize this in an interesting way, and for that, we want you to play around with it a bit more. Sans patty paper.

Heres a second diagram and more space

to help you.

Leave this box blank for now. Were going to use it to write down precisely what big question this
circle/angle exploration raises for us!