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Worked Examples · Example 3

Q.Find the centre and the radius of the circle x2+y2+8x+10y−8=0x^2 + y^2 + 8x + 10y - 8 = 0.

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The equation is rewritten by completing the square to get (x+4)2+(y+5)2=49(x+4)^2 + (y+5)^2 = 49, so the centre is (−4,−5)(-4, -5) and the radius is 77.

The standard form of a circle’s equation is (x−h)2+(y−k)2=r2(x - h)^2 + (y - k)^2 = r^2, where (h,k)(h, k) is the centre and rr is the radius. The given equation is in expanded form — it has x2x^2, y2y^2, linear terms in xx and yy, and a constant. To extract the centre and radius, we need to reverse the expansion by completing the square for both xx and yy terms. This method works because any quadratic expression like x2+8xx^2 + 8x can be turned into a perfect square plus a leftover constant.

  1. Group the xx and yy terms Write the equation as:

(x2+8x)+(y2+10y)=8(x^2 + 8x) + (y^2 + 10y) = 8

We move the constant −8-8 to the right side as +8+8.

  1. Complete the square for xx Take half of the coefficient of xx (which is 88), giving 44. Square it to get 1616. Add and subtract 1616 inside the xx group:

x2+8x=(x2+8x+16)−16=(x+4)2−16x^2 + 8x = (x^2 + 8x + 16) - 16 = (x + 4)^2 - 16

  1. Complete the square for yy Half of 1010 is 55, square is 2525. So:

y2+10y=(y2+10y+25)−25=(y+5)2−25y^2 + 10y = (y^2 + 10y + 25) - 25 = (y + 5)^2 - 25

  1. Substitute back into the equation Replace the groups:

(x+4)2−16+(y+5)2−25=8(x + 4)^2 - 16 + (y + 5)^2 - 25 = 8

Combine the constants: −16−25=−41-16 - 25 = -41, so:

(x+4)2+(y+5)2−41=8(x + 4)^2 + (y + 5)^2 - 41 = 8

  1. Isolate the squared terms Add 4141 to both sides:

(x+4)2+(y+5)2=49(x + 4)^2 + (y + 5)^2 = 49

  1. Read off centre and radius …

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