@The-Rogue-Blade This is a good question! If we take the Power of a Point Theorem literally, then the segments that we are multiplying together should live up to the name "Power of a Point"; they should all emanate from the same point.

M2W2D8-y-part-2-power-of-point-why-not-ae-times-af-equals-bc-squared.png

In the above illustration, the correct answer is shown:

$$ CF \times CE = (BC)^2 $$

Now consider \(\overline{AE}\) and \(\overline{AF};\) these segments emanate from point \(A,\) but the segment \(\overline{BC}\) emanates from a \(\textcolor{red}{\text{different}}\) point, \(C.\) We have not one point, but \(2\) points.

M2W2D8-y-part-2-power-of-point-why-not-ae-times-af-equals-bc-squared2.png

Unfortunately, it's not called "Power of Two Points," so

$$ AE \times AF \neq (BC)^2 $$

🙂