MathDB
Measure of Angle

Source:

February 11, 2009
rotation

Problem Statement

In the figure, PA PA is tangent to semicircle SAR SAR; PB PB is tangent to semicircle RBT RBT; SRT SRT is a straight line; the arcs are indicated in the figure. Angle APB APB is measured by: [asy]unitsize(1.2cm); defaultpen(linewidth(.8pt)+fontsize(8pt)); dotfactor=3;
pair O1=(0,0), O2=(3,0), Sp=(-2,0), R=(2,0), T=(4,0); pair A=O1+2*dir(60), B=O2+dir(85); pair Pa=rotate(90,A)*O1, Pb=rotate(-90,B)*O2; pair P=extension(A,Pa,B,Pb); pair[] dots={Sp,R,T,A,B,P};
draw(P--P+5*(A-P)); draw(P--P+5*(B-P)); clip((-2,0)--(-2,2.5)--(4,2.5)--(4,0)--cycle); draw(Arc(O1,2,0,180)--cycle); draw(Arc(O2,1,0,180)--cycle);
dot(dots); label("SS",Sp,S); label("RR",R,S); label("TT",T,S); label("AA",A,NE); label("BB",B,N); label("PP",P,NNE); label("aa",midpoint(Arc(O1,2,0,60)),SW); label("bb",midpoint(Arc(O2,1,85,180)),SE); label("cc",midpoint(Arc(O1,2,60,180)),SE); label("dd",midpoint(Arc(O2,1,0,85)),SW);[/asy] (A)\ \frac {1}{2}(a \minus{} b) \qquad (B)\ \frac {1}{2}(a \plus{} b) \qquad (C)\ (c \minus{} a) \minus{} (d \minus{} b) \qquad (D)\ a \minus{} b \qquad (E)\ a \plus{} b