Diameter

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Circle with
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circumference C
diameter D
radius R
centre or origin O Circle-withsegments.svg
Circle with
  diameter D
  radius R
  centre or origin O

In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the centre of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest chord of the circle. Both definitions are also valid for the diameter of a sphere.

Contents

In more modern usage, the length of a diameter is also called the diameter. In this sense one speaks of the diameter rather than a diameter (which refers to the line segment itself), because all diameters of a circle or sphere have the same length, this being twice the radius

The word "diameter" is derived from Ancient Greek : διάμετρος (diametros), "diameter of a circle", from διά (dia), "across, through" and μέτρον (metron), "measure". [1] It is often abbreviated or

Constructions

With straightedge and compass, a diameter of a given circle can be constructed as the perpendicular bisector of an arbitrary chord. Drawing two diameters in this way can be used to locate the center of a circle, as their crossing point. [2] To construct a diameter parallel to a given line, choose the chord to be perpendicular to the line.

The circle having a given line segment as its diameter can be constructed by straightedge and compass, by finding the midpoint of the segment and then drawing the circle centered at the midpoint through one of the ends of the line segment.

Symbol

Sign [?] in a technical drawing Technical Drawing Hole 01.svg
Sign ⌀ in a technical drawing
A photographic filter marked as having a 58mm thread diameter Hama UV Filter 1.jpg
A photographic filter marked as having a 58mm thread diameter

The symbol or variable for diameter, , is sometimes used in technical drawings or specifications as a prefix or suffix for a number (e.g. "⌀ 55 mm"), indicating that it represents diameter. [3] Photographic filter thread sizes are often denoted in this way. [4]

The symbol has a code point in Unicode at U+2300DIAMETER SIGN, in the Miscellaneous Technical set. It should not be confused with several other characters (such as U+00D8Ø LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH STROKE or U+2205 EMPTY SET ) that resemble it but have unrelated meanings. [5] It has the compose sequence Compose di. [6]

Generalizations

The definitions given above are only valid for circles and spheres. However, they are special cases of a more general definition that is valid for any kind of -dimensional object, or a set of scattered points. The diameter of a set is the least upper bound of the set of all distances between pairs of points in the subset.

A different and incompatible definition is sometimes used for the diameter of a conic section. In this context, a diameter is any chord which passes through the conic's centre. A diameter of an ellipse is any line passing through the centre of the ellipse. [7] Half of any such diameter may be called a semidiameter, although this term is most often a synonym for the radius of a circle or sphere. [8] The longest diameter is called the major axis. Conjugate diameters are a pair of diameters where one is parallel to a tangent to the ellipse at the endpoint of the other diameter.

Several kinds of object can be measured by equivalent diameter, the diameter of a circular or spherical approximation to the object. This includes hydraulic diameter, the equivalent diameter of a channel or pipe through which liquid flows, and the Sauter mean diameter of a collection of particles.

The diameter of a circle is exactly twice its radius. However, this is true only for a circle, and only in the Euclidean metric. Jung's theorem provides more general inequalities relating the diameter to the radius.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Circle</span> Simple curve of Euclidean geometry

A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. The distance between any point of the circle and the centre is called the radius. The length of a line segment connecting two points on the circle and passing through the centre is called the diameter. A circle bounds a region of the plane called a disc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellipse</span> Plane curve: conic section

In mathematics, an ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focal points, such that for all points on the curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant. It generalizes a circle, which is the special type of ellipse in which the two focal points are the same. The elongation of an ellipse is measured by its eccentricity , a number ranging from to .

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyperbola</span> Plane curve: conic section

In mathematics, a hyperbola is a type of smooth curve lying in a plane, defined by its geometric properties or by equations for which it is the solution set. A hyperbola has two pieces, called connected components or branches, that are mirror images of each other and resemble two infinite bows. The hyperbola is one of the three kinds of conic section, formed by the intersection of a plane and a double cone. If the plane intersects both halves of the double cone but does not pass through the apex of the cones, then the conic is a hyperbola.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parabola</span> Plane curve: conic section

In mathematics, a parabola is a plane curve which is mirror-symmetrical and is approximately U-shaped. It fits several superficially different mathematical descriptions, which can all be proved to define exactly the same curves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sphere</span> Set of points equidistant from a center

A sphere is a geometrical object that is a three-dimensional analogue to a two-dimensional circle. Formally, a sphere is the set of points that are all at the same distance r from a given point in three-dimensional space. That given point is the center of the sphere, and r is the sphere's radius. The earliest known mentions of spheres appear in the work of the ancient Greek mathematicians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Straightedge and compass construction</span> Method of drawing geometric objects

In geometry, straightedge-and-compass construction – also known as ruler-and-compass construction, Euclidean construction, or classical construction – is the construction of lengths, angles, and other geometric figures using only an idealized ruler and a pair of compasses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perpendicular</span> Relationship between two lines that meet at a right angle (90 degrees)

In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if their intersection forms right angles at the point of intersection called a foot. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the perpendicular symbol, ⟂. Perpendicular intersections can happen between two lines, between a line and a plane, and between two planes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parallelogram</span> Quadrilateral with two pairs of parallel sides

In Euclidean geometry, a parallelogram is a simple (non-self-intersecting) quadrilateral with two pairs of parallel sides. The opposite or facing sides of a parallelogram are of equal length and the opposite angles of a parallelogram are of equal measure. The congruence of opposite sides and opposite angles is a direct consequence of the Euclidean parallel postulate and neither condition can be proven without appealing to the Euclidean parallel postulate or one of its equivalent formulations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bisection</span> Division of something into two equal or congruent parts

In geometry, bisection is the division of something into two equal or congruent parts. Usually it involves a bisecting line, also called a bisector. The most often considered types of bisectors are the segment bisector, a line that passes through the midpoint of a given segment, and the angle bisector, a line that passes through the apex of an angle . In three-dimensional space, bisection is usually done by a bisecting plane, also called the bisector.

In mathematics, a degenerate case is a limiting case of a class of objects which appears to be qualitatively different from the rest of the class; "degeneracy" is the condition of being a degenerate case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chord (geometry)</span> Geometric line segment whose endpoints both lie on the curve

A chord of a circle is a straight line segment whose endpoints both lie on a circular arc. If a chord were to be extended infinitely on both directions into a line, the object is a secant line. The perpendicular line passing through the chord's midpoint is called sagitta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Midpoint</span> Point on a line segment which is equidistant from both endpoints

In geometry, the midpoint is the middle point of a line segment. It is equidistant from both endpoints, and it is the centroid both of the segment and of the endpoints. It bisects the segment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Semicircle</span> Geometric shape

In mathematics, a semicircle is a one-dimensional locus of points that forms half of a circle. It is a circular arc that measures 180°. It only has one line of symmetry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dupin cyclide</span> Geometric inversion of a torus, cylinder or double cone

In mathematics, a Dupin cyclide or cyclide of Dupin is any geometric inversion of a standard torus, cylinder or double cone. In particular, these latter are themselves examples of Dupin cyclides. They were discovered c. 1802 by Charles Dupin, while he was still a student at the École polytechnique following Gaspard Monge's lectures. The key property of a Dupin cyclide is that it is a channel surface in two different ways. This property means that Dupin cyclides are natural objects in Lie sphere geometry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beltrami–Klein model</span> Model of hyperbolic geometry

In geometry, the Beltrami–Klein model, also called the projective model, Klein disk model, and the Cayley–Klein model, is a model of hyperbolic geometry in which points are represented by the points in the interior of the unit disk and lines are represented by the chords, straight line segments with ideal endpoints on the boundary sphere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Projective harmonic conjugate</span> Point found separated from another, given a point pair

In projective geometry, the harmonic conjugate point of a point on the real projective line with respect to two other points is defined by the following construction:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conic section</span> Curve from a cone intersecting a plane

A conic section, conic or a quadratic curve is a curve obtained from a cone's surface intersecting a plane. The three types of conic section are the hyperbola, the parabola, and the ellipse; the circle is a special case of the ellipse, though it was sometimes called as a fourth type. The ancient Greek mathematicians studied conic sections, culminating around 200 BC with Apollonius of Perga's systematic work on their properties.

In Euclidean plane geometry, a tangent line to a circle is a line that touches the circle at exactly one point, never entering the circle's interior. Tangent lines to circles form the subject of several theorems, and play an important role in many geometrical constructions and proofs. Since the tangent line to a circle at a point P is perpendicular to the radius to that point, theorems involving tangent lines often involve radial lines and orthogonal circles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Line segment</span> Part of a line that is bounded by two distinct end points; line with two endpoints

In geometry, a line segment is a part of a straight line that is bounded by two distinct endpoints, and contains every point on the line that is between its endpoints. It is a special case of an arc, with zero curvature. The length of a line segment is given by the Euclidean distance between its endpoints. A closed line segment includes both endpoints, while an open line segment excludes both endpoints; a half-open line segment includes exactly one of the endpoints. In geometry, a line segment is often denoted using an overline (vinculum) above the symbols for the two endpoints, such as in AB.

In geometry, two diameters of a conic section are said to be conjugate if each chord parallel to one diameter is bisected by the other diameter. For example, two diameters of a circle are conjugate if and only if they are perpendicular.

References

    1. "Diameter—Origin and meaning of diameter by Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com.
    2. "6-66 Finding the center of a circle". General Drafting. Technical manual, TM 5-581A, United States Department of the Army. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1972. p. 6-32.
    3. Puncochar, Daniel E. (1997). Interpretation of Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing. Industrial Press Inc. p. 5. ISBN   9780831130725.
    4. Ciaglia, Joseph (2002). Introduction to Digital Photography. Prentice Hall. p. 9. ISBN   9780130321367. The filter diameter (in mm) usually follows the symbol ⌀
    5. Korpela, Jukka K. (2006). Unicode Explained. O'Reilly Media, Inc. p. 171. ISBN   9780596101213.
    6. Monniaux, David. "UTF-8 (Unicode) compose sequence" . Retrieved 2018-07-13.
    7. Bogomolny, Alexander. "Conjugate Diameters in Ellipse". www.cut-the-knot.org.
    8. Raphson, Joseph; Ozanam, Jacques (1702). A Mathematical Dictionary. J. Nicholson, and T. Leigh and D. Midwinter. p. 26.