How many tangents can be drawn froman external point to a circle .

Options

A. 1
B. 2
C. 3
D. 4

Answer

To determine how many tangents can be drawn from an external point to a circle, we can follow these steps:

### Step-by-Step Solution:

1. **Understanding the Circle and External Point**:
- Consider a circle with center O and a point P located outside the circle.

2. **Definition of a Tangent**:
- A tangent to a circle is a line that touches the circle at exactly one point.

3. **Drawing Tangents from Point P**:
- From the external point P, we can draw lines that touch the circle.
- There are two distinct lines that can be drawn from point P that will each touch the circle at one point.

4. **Identifying the Points of Tangency**:
- Let’s denote the points where these tangents touch the circle as A and B.
- Thus, we can draw two tangents: one from P to A and another from P to B.

5. **Conclusion**:
- Therefore, from an external point P, we can draw a maximum of **two tangents** to the circle.

### Final Answer:
The number of tangents that can be drawn from an external point to a circle is **2**.

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