Problem
1995 AHSME Problem 28
Two parallel chords in a circle have lengths 10 and 14, and the distance between them is 6. The chord parallel to these chords and midway between them is of length \sqrt {a} where a is ![[asy] // note: diagram deliberately not to scale -- azjps void htick(pair A, pair B, real r){ D(A--B); D(A-(r,0)--A+(r,0)); D(B-(r,0)--B+(r,0)); } size(120); pathpen = linewidth(0.7); pointpen = black+linewidth(3); real min = -0.6, step = 0.5; pair[] A, B; D(unitcircle); for(int i = 0; i < 3; ++i) { A.push(intersectionpoints((-9,min+i*step)--(9,min+i*step),unitcircle)[0]); B.push(intersectionpoints((-9,min+i*step)--(9,min+i*step),unitcircle)[1]); D(D(A[i])--D(B[i])); } MP("10",(A[0]+B[0])/2,N); MP("\sqrt{a}",(A[1]+B[1])/2,N); MP("14",(A[2]+B[2])/2,N); htick((B[1].x+0.1,B[0].y),(B[1].x+0.1,B[2].y),0.06); MP("6",(B[1].x+0.1,B[0].y/2+B[2].y/2),E); [/asy]](/static/aops/e7d54b55af6ebb2a098f03d4cb4c98b4ea915e01.png)
\mathrm{(A) \ 144 } \qquad \mathrm{(B) \ 156 } \qquad \mathrm{(C) \ 168 } \qquad \mathrm{(D) \ 176 } \qquad \mathrm{(E) \ 184 }
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