The centers of two circles with radii 5 and 7 are 14 units apart. Find the length of the commonexternal tangent.

Solution
Using the pythagoras
[tex]\begin{gathered} x^=\sqrt{14^2+2^2} \\ x^=\sqrt{200} \\ x=10\sqrt{2} \end{gathered}[/tex]The length of the common external tangent is
[tex]10\sqrt{2}=\text{ 14.14213}[/tex]The final answer
[tex]\:14.14213[/tex]