Circle

A circle is a geometric figure commonly used in Euclidean geometry.

$[asy]draw(unitcircle,blue);[/asy]$

A basic circle.

Traditional Definition

A circle is defined as the set (or locus) of points in a plane with an equal distance from a fixed point. The fixed point is called the center and the distance from the center to a point on the circle is called the radius.

The radius and center of a circle.

Coordinate Definition

Using the traditional definition of a circle, we can find the general form of the equation of a circle on the coordinate plane given its radius, $r$ , and center $(h,k)$ . We know that each point, $(x,y)$ , on the circle which we want to identify is a distance $r$ from $(h,k)$ . Using the distance formula, this gives $\sqrt{(x-h)^2 + (y-k)^2} = r$ which is more commonly written as

$(x-h)^2 + (y-k)^2 = r^2$

Example: The equation $(x-3)^2 + (y+6)^2 = 25$ represents the circle with center $(3,-6)$ and radius 5 units.

Area of a Circle

The area of a circle is $\pi r^2$ where $\pi$ is the mathematical constant pi and $r$ is the radius.

Archimedes' Proof

We shall explore two of the Greek mathematician Archimedes demonstrations of the area of a circle. The first is much more intuitive.

Archimedes envisioned cutting a circle up into many little wedges (think of slices of pizza). Then these wedges were placed side by side as shown below:

As these slices are made infinitely thin, the little green arcs in the diagram will become the blue line and the figure will approach the shape of a rectangle with length $r$ and width $\pi r$ thus making its area $\pi r^2$ .

Archimedes also came up with a brilliant proof of the area of a circle by using the proof technique of reductio ad absurdum.

Archimedes' actual claim was that a circle with radius $r$ and circumference $C$ had an area equivalent to the area of a right triangle with base $C$ and height $r$ . First let the area of the circle be $A$ and the area of the triangle be $T$ . We have three cases then.

Case 1: The circle's area is greater than the triangle's area.

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Related Formulae

The area of a circle with radius $r$ is $\pi r^2$
The circumference of a circle with radius $r$ is $2\pi r$

Other Properties and Definitions

$[asy]draw(unitcircle);draw((-0.8,1)--(1,1),Arrow);draw((1,1)--(-0.8,1),Arrow);draw((0,1)--(1,0));[/asy]$

A circle with a tangent and a chord marked.

A line that touches a circle at only one point is called the tangent of that circle. Note that any point on a circle can have only one tangent.
A line segment that has endpoints on the circle is called the chord of the circle. If the chord is extended to a line, that line is called a secant of the circle.
Chords, secants, and tangents have the following properties:
- The perpendicular bisector of a chord is always a diameter of the circle.
- The perpendicular line through the tangent where it touches the circle is a diameter of the circle.
- The Power of a point theorem.

Other interesting properties are:

A right triangle inscribed in a circle has a hypotenuse that is a diameter of the circle.
Any angle formed by the two endpoints of a diameter of the circle and a third distinct point on the circle as the vertex is a right angle.

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Circle

Contents

Traditional Definition

Coordinate Definition

Area of a Circle

Archimedes' Proof

Related Formulae

Other Properties and Definitions

Problems

Introductory

Intermediate

Olympiad

See Also