GCSE :: Arcs & Sectors

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Objectives: Be able to determine the arc length and area of a

sector, and solve problems involving these.
(This resource is intended for Higher Tier students only)

Last modified: 30th April 2021

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Further Resources on this Topic

Key Skills allow repetitive practice of randomly generated questions, with short worked example
videos and detailed feedback. Teachers can also use these to produce randomly-generated worksheets.
Simply type the ‘K___’ into the DrFrostMaths search bar or use the direct link.

Key Skill Direct Link

K289: Find the area of the sector of a circle. www.drfrostmaths.com/keyskills.php?ksid=289

K290: Find the perimeter of a sector of a circle. www.drfrostmaths.com/keyskills.php?ksid=290

K291: Find the radius of a sector given its area www.drfrostmaths.com/keyskills.php?ksid=291

and angle.
K292: Find the radius of a sector given its arc www.drfrostmaths.com/keyskills.php?ksid=292
length and angle.
K293: Find the angle of a sector given its arc www.drfrostmaths.com/keyskills.php?ksid=293
length and radius.

K294: Find the angle of a sector given its area www.drfrostmaths.com/keyskills.php?ksid=294

and radius.

Exam Skills involve broader topic areas and consist of past paper exam questions (as well as user
contributions). Teachers can download teaching resources and browse exam questions, and students
can practise questions online.
Exam Skill Direct Link

E417: Find the area or arc length of more https://www.drfrostmaths.com/resourceexplorer.php?tid=25

general sectors.
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Why not register? themselves), to set work, monitor progress and even create worksheets.

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STARTER :: Perimeter/Area of Fractions of Circles
𝑟 Area ?
Circumference or ?
Find the perimeter and area of these This means:
shapes, giving your answer in terms of . your answer should be an expression
?
containing , e.g. “”, and shouldn’t be a
rounded decimal.
1 2
10 cm
6 cm 8 cm
3

Area
Perimeter
? Area
Perimeter
?
? Shaded area?
? 𝟐
𝟐 𝝅 ×𝟖
¿𝟖 − ?
𝟒
 Circle Key Definitions

! It’s a ‘minor’ arc because it’s

less than half the circle

? Arc
(Minor)
(Minor)?Sector
It’s a ‘minor’ sector because
it’s less than half the circle

?
Chord ?
Radius

(Minor)
?
Segment
The area on the other side
?
Diameter
of the chord would be a
major segment.

?
Tangent
?
Circumference
Working towards sector area/arc length
With the starter activity, you found for example the area of a quarter circle by first
calculating the area of a full circle, and then taking a quarter of it/dividing by 4.

Identify what fraction (in its simplest form) of the

area of each circle you’d use in each case:

270°
60 °
240°

𝟐𝟕𝟎 𝟑 𝟔𝟎 𝟏 𝟐𝟒𝟎 𝟐
=
𝟑𝟔𝟎? 𝟒
= 𝟑𝟔𝟎? 𝟔 𝟑𝟔𝟎? 𝟑
=
Formula for sector area and arc length
Can you therefore find a generic formula for the area of a sector and
length of the area, if the angle is and radius ?

Notation Note: is the

Greek letter “theta”, and is

! often used for angles.

Area of sector
𝜃 ?
Arc length
𝑟
?
Examples

Area of shape? (to 3sf)

cm2
?
Length of arc? (to 3sf)
130° cm
cm
?

Test Your Understanding:

Area of shape? (giving answer in terms of )

cm2
?
Perimeter of shape? (in terms of )
240°
cm
cm ? Fro Tip: Don’t forget
the straight edges.
Exercise 1 (on printed worksheet)

[OCR GCSE(9-1) Practice set 1 6H Q7]

1
OPQ is a sector of a circle, centre O and radius 9 cm.

Find the perimeter of the sector.

Give your answer in terms of .

?
Exercise 1 (on printed worksheet)

2 [AQA GCSE Nov 2012 2H Q23] The diagram shows a sector of a circle.
Work out the area of the sector.
Give your answer to a suitable degree of accuracy.

?
Exercise 1 (on printed worksheet)

3 [Edexcel GCSE June2003-5H Q15]

The diagram shows a sector of a circle, centre O. The radius of the circle is 9 cm.
The angle at the centre of the circle is 40°.
Find the perimeter of the sector.
Leave your answer in terms of .

?
Exercise 1 (on printed worksheet)

4 [Edexcel IGCSE June2010-4H Q17]

The diagram shows a sector of a circle, radius 45 cm, with angle 84°.
Calculate the area of the sector. Give your answer correct to 3 significant figures.

?
Exercise 1 (on printed worksheet)

5 [AQA GCSE June 2016 2H Q17] The diagram shows a sector of a circle.
The radius is 7 .
Work out the perimeter of the shape.

?
Exercise 1 (on printed worksheet)

6 [AQA GCSE Nov 2016 1H Q21] This shape is made from two identical sectors.
Work out the perimeter of the shape. Give your answer in terms of .

?
Exercise 1 (on printed worksheet)

[OCR GCSE(9-1) Nov 2017 6H Q8] The design below is made from two sectors of
7
circles, centre .
Calculate the perimeter of the shaded part. Give your answer correct to 3
significant figures.

?
More Difficult Sector/Arc Problems
There are a variety of ways that area/sector questions might be more difficult:
• Finding the radius or angle (subtended at the centre) of the sector, given the
perimeter or arc length or area.
• Finding the perimeter given the area of the sector, or vice versa.
• Finding the area of a segment (we’ll cover this separately in trig).

The area of this sector is .

Determine its radius. Use area formula for sector. There’s
80 ° nothing different here to what you did
previously – it’s just that this time the
radius is unknown, and we set our
area expression to be equal to the
known area.

Tidy up a bit.

Divide both sides by .

We don’t like fractions in equations, so

multiply both sides by denominator.
Further Example

The arc length of this sector is cm.

Determine its area, giving your answer in terms of .

cm

We can use the arc length to determine the

angle subtended at the centre.

Divide both sides by and simplify the

Sector area: If we treat the as , we get
Test Your Understanding

[Edexcel IGCSE Jan2016-4H Q24]

The diagram shows sector OAB of a circle, centre .
Angle Sector has area cm2
Calculate the perimeter of sector .
Give your answer correct to 3 significant figures.

?
Exercise 2 (on printed worksheet)

1 [Edexcel GCSE March2013-2H Q19] OAB is a sector of a circle, centre O.

The radius of the circle is 15 cm.
The angle of the sector is 30°.

Calculate the area of sector OAB.

Give your answer correct to 3 significant figures.

?
Exercise 2 (on printed worksheet)

[OCR GCSE(9-1) Nov 2018 5H Q12]

2
is a sector of a circle, centre and radius 6 cm.
The length of arc is cm.

Find the area of the sector.

Give your answer in terms of .

?
Exercise 2 (on printed worksheet)

3 [OCR GCSE June 2016 3H Q20]

OAB is a sector of a circle, centre O. Angle AOB = 120°.
The area of sector OAB is .
Find, in terms of , the length of the arc AB.

?
Exercise 2 (on printed worksheet)

[Edexcel GCSE(9-1) Nov 2018 3H Q16] Here is a shaded shape .

4
The shape is made from a triangle and a sector of a circle, centre and radius 6
cm. is a straight line. cm
Angle Angle
Calculate the perimeter of the shape. Give your answer correct to 3 significant
figures.

Note: Sine/cosine rule

knowledge required for
this question.

?
Exercise 2 (on printed worksheet)

5 [Edexcel IGCSE Nov2009-3H Q18]

In the diagram, a sector of a circle of radius 12 cm is shaded.
The area of the sector is .
Calculate the value of .

?
Exercise 2 (on printed worksheet)

[Edexcel GCSE(9-1) June 2017 3H Q18] , and are points on a circle of radius 5
6
cm, centre . and are tangents to the circle. = 9 cm
Work out the length of arc .
Give your answer correct to 3 significant figures.

?
Exercise 2 (on printed worksheet)

7 [Edexcel GCSE(9-1) Mock Set 3 Autumn 2017 2H Q19] The diagram shows a
sector of a circle of radius 9 cm.
The sector has a perimeter of 25 cm.
Work out the value of x.
Give your answer correct to 1 decimal place.

?
Exercise 2 (on printed worksheet)

8 [Edexcel GCSE(9-1) Nov 2017 2H Q20]

is a sector of a circle, centre , radius 10 m. is the tangent to the circle at point .
is the tangent to the circle at point . Angle
Calculate the area of the shaded region. Give your answer correct to 3 significant
figures.

?
Exercise 2 (on printed worksheet)

9 [Edexcel IGCSE(9-1) Jan2019(R)2H Q22]

is a sector of a circle, centre is a sector of a circle, centre
is the point on such that
is the point on such that Angle
The area of the shaded region is cm
Work out the perimeter of the shaded region. Give your answer in terms of .

?
Exercise 2 (on printed worksheet)

10 [Edexcel GCSE Nov2015-2H Q20] Here are two watch faces, A and B.

Both watch faces are circular with radius 2 cm. The materials used to make both
watch faces have the same thickness.
A is made entirely of plastic. B has a 20° sector of metal and a 340° sector of plastic.
The ratio of the cost per cm2 of the metal to the cost per cm2 of the plastic is 3 : 2
Work out the ratio of the cost of the materials for A to the cost of the materials for
B. Give your answer in its simplest form. You must show all your working.

?
Exercise 2 (on printed worksheet)

N [Edexcel GCSE June2007-6H Q25b Edited]

Here is the net of a cone.

The net is a sector of a circle, centre O, and

radius 15 cm.
Reflex angle AOB = 216°
The net makes a cone of slant height 15 cm.
Work out the vertical height of the cone

?
BONUS QUESTION

[Edexcel IGCSE Jan2017-3H Q22]

The diagram shows a sector OAB of a circle, centre O. Angle AOB = 75°
Length of arc AB = 7.2 cm
Calculate the area of the sector.
Give your answer correct to 3 significant figures.