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Geometry and Trigonometry / Circles Difficulty: Hard

Point F lies on a unit circle in the xy-plane and has coordinates 1,0. Point G is the center of the circle and has coordinates 0,0. Point H also lies on the circle and has coordinates -1,y, where y is a constant. Which of the following could be the positive measure of angle F G H , in radians?

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Explanation

Choice D is correct. It's given that the circle is a unit circle, which means the circle has a radius of 1. It's also given that point G is the center of the circle and has coordinates (0,0) and that point H lies on the circle and has coordinates (-1,y). Since the radius of the circle is 1, the value of y must be 0, as all other points with an x-coordinate of -1 are a distance greater than 1 away from point G. Since F and H are points on the unit circle centered at G, let side FG be the starting side of the angle and side GH be the terminal side of the angle. Since side FG is on the positive x-axis and side GH is on the negative x-axis, side FG is half of a rotation around the unit circle, or π radians, away from side GH. Therefore, the positive measure of angle FGH, in radians, is equal to π plus an integer multiple of 2π. In other words, the positive measure of angle FGH, in radians, is an odd integer multiple of π. Of the given choices, only 25π is an odd integer multiple of π.

Choice A is incorrect. This could be the positive measure of an angle where the starting side is FG and the terminal side contains the point (0,-1), not (-1,0).

Choice B is incorrect. This could be the positive measure of an angle where the starting side is FG and the terminal side contains the point (0,1), not (-1,0).

Choice C is incorrect. This could be the positive measure of an angle where the starting side is FG and the terminal side contains the point (1,0), not (-1,0).