Circumference
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Circle
The circumference of a circle is the distance around it, but if, as in many elementary treatments, distance is defined in terms of straight lines, this cannot be used as a definition. Under these circumstances, the circumference of a circle may be defined as the limit of the perimeters of inscribed regular polygons as the number of sides increases without bound.[3] The term circumference is used when measuring physical objects, as well as when considering abstract geometric forms.
Relationship with π
The circumference of a
Or, equivalently, as the ratio of the circumference to twice the radius. The above formula can be rearranged to solve for the circumference:
The ratio of the circle's circumference to its radius is called the circle constant, and is equivalent to . The value is also the amount of radians in one turn. The use of the mathematical constant π is ubiquitous in mathematics, engineering, and science.
In Measurement of a Circle written circa 250 BCE, Archimedes showed that this ratio ( since he did not use the name π) was greater than 310/71 but less than 31/7 by calculating the perimeters of an inscribed and a circumscribed regular polygon of 96 sides.[5] This method for approximating π was used for centuries, obtaining more accuracy by using polygons of larger and larger number of sides. The last such calculation was performed in 1630 by Christoph Grienberger who used polygons with 1040 sides.
Ellipse
Circumference is used by some authors to denote the perimeter of an ellipse. There is no general formula for the circumference of an ellipse in terms of the semi-major and semi-minor axes of the ellipse that uses only elementary functions. However, there are approximate formulas in terms of these parameters. One such approximation, due to Euler (1773), for the canonical ellipse,
Here the upper bound is the circumference of a
The circumference of an ellipse can be expressed exactly in terms of the
See also
- Arc length – Distance along a curve
- Area – Size of a two-dimensional surface
- Circumgon – Geometric figure which circumscribes a circle
- Isoperimetric inequality – Geometric inequality which sets a lower bound on the surface area of a set given its volume
- List of formulas in elementary geometry
References
- ^ San Diego State University (2004). "Perimeter, Area and Circumference" (PDF). Addison-Wesley. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 October 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-321-22773-7
- ISBN 0-7167-0456-0
- ^ Sloane, N. J. A. (ed.). "Sequence A000796". The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. OEIS Foundation.
- ISBN 978-0-321-01618-8
- S2CID 126427943.
- S2CID 119810884