Secant line Secant line In geometry, a secant of a curve is a line that intersects the curve in at least two (distinct) points. The word "secant" comes from the Latin word "secare", meaning "to cut". In the case of a circle, a secant will intersect the circle in exactly two points and a chord is the line segment determined by these two points, that is the interval on a secant whose endpoints are these points. A straight line can intersect a circle in two, one or zero points. A line intersecting in two points is called a "secant line", in one
Circle of a sphere there is exactly one circle that can be drawn through three given points. The proof can be extended to show that the points on a circle are all a common angular distance from one of its poles. To show that a non-trivial intersection of two spheres is a circle, assume (without loss of generality) that one sphere (with radius formula_1) is centered at the origin. Points on this sphere satisfy Also without loss of generality, assume that the second sphere, with radius formula_3, is centered at a point on the positive x-axis, at distance formula_4 from the origin. Its points