GmatKiss wrote:The circular base of a planter sits on a level lawn, and just touches two straight garden walls at points W and Y. The walls come together at point X, which is 15 inches from the center of the planter. What is the area of the base of the planter?

(1) Both points Y and W are 9 inches from the center of the planter
(2) Point W is 12 inches from point X

This question is based on the concept that tangents of a circle at any point is perpendicular to the radius drawn from that point. Now, the line joining the center of the circle with W and Y is nothing but the radii of the circle which is perpendicular to WX and WY at the point W and Y respectively.

Now statement 1 simply gives us the radius of the circle. Hence, we can determine the area.

And statement 2 tells us WX = 12 and from the question itself OX = 15, where O is the center. As WXO will be a right-angled triangle, we can easily derive the length of WO as √(15² - 12²) = 9, which is radius of the circle.

Hence, both statements individually tells us the length of the radius of the circle.

The correct answer is D.