Radius

Last updated
Circle with:
.mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{}
radius R
circumference C
diameter D
center or origin O Circle-withsegments.svg
Circle with:
  radius R
  circumference C
  diameter D
  center or origin O

In classical geometry, a radius (pl.: radii or radiuses) [a] of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The radius of a regular polygon is the line segment or distance from its center to any of its vertices. The name comes from the Latin radius, meaning ray but also the spoke of a chariot wheel. [2] The typical abbreviation and mathematical symbol for radius is R or r. By extension, the diameter D is defined as twice the radius: [3]

Contents

If an object does not have a center, the term may refer to its circumradius, the radius of its circumscribed circle or circumscribed sphere. In either case, the radius may be more than half the diameter, which is usually defined as the maximum distance between any two points of the figure. The inradius of a geometric figure is usually the radius of the largest circle or sphere contained in it. The inner radius of a ring, tube or other hollow object is the radius of its cavity.

For regular polygons, the radius is the same as its circumradius. [4] The inradius of a regular polygon is also called apothem. In graph theory, the radius of a graph is the minimum over all vertices u of the maximum distance from u to any other vertex of the graph. [5]

The radius of the circle with perimeter (circumference) C is

Formula

For many geometric figures, the radius has a well-defined relationship with other measures of the figure.

Circles

The radius of a circle with area A is

The radius of the circle that passes through the three non-collinear points P1, P2, and P3 is given by

where θ is the angle P1P2P3. This formula uses the law of sines. If the three points are given by their coordinates (x1,y1), (x2,y2), and (x3,y3), the radius can be expressed as

Regular polygons

nRn
30.577350...
40.707106...
50.850650...
6
1
71.152382...
81.306562...
91.461902...
101.618033...
A square, for example (n=4) Regular polygon radius square.png
A square, for example (n=4)

The radius r of a regular polygon with n sides of length s is given by r = Rns, where Values of Rn for small values of n are given in the table. If s = 1 then these values are also the radii of the corresponding regular polygons.


Hypercubes

The radius of a d-dimensional hypercube with side s is

Use in coordinate systems

Polar coordinates

The polar coordinate system is a two-dimensional coordinate system in which each point on a plane is determined by a distance from a fixed point and an angle from a fixed direction.

The fixed point (analogous to the origin of a Cartesian system) is called the pole, and the ray from the pole in the fixed direction is the polar axis. The distance from the pole is called the radial coordinate or radius, and the angle is the angular coordinate, polar angle, or azimuth . [6]

Cylindrical coordinates

In the cylindrical coordinate system, there is a chosen reference axis and a chosen reference plane perpendicular to that axis. The origin of the system is the point where all three coordinates can be given as zero. This is the intersection between the reference plane and the axis.

The axis is variously called the cylindrical or longitudinal axis, to differentiate it from the polar axis, which is the ray that lies in the reference plane, starting at the origin and pointing in the reference direction.

The distance from the axis may be called the radial distance or radius, while the angular coordinate is sometimes referred to as the angular position or as the azimuth. The radius and the azimuth are together called the polar coordinates, as they correspond to a two-dimensional polar coordinate system in the plane through the point, parallel to the reference plane. The third coordinate may be called the height or altitude (if the reference plane is considered horizontal), longitudinal position, [7] or axial position. [8]

Spherical coordinates

In a spherical coordinate system, the radius describes the distance of a point from a fixed origin. Its position if further defined by the polar angle measured between the radial direction and a fixed zenith direction, and the azimuth angle, the angle between the orthogonal projection of the radial direction on a reference plane that passes through the origin and is orthogonal to the zenith, and a fixed reference direction in that plane.

See also

Notes

  1. The plural of radius can be either radii (from the Latin plural) or the conventional English plural radiuses. [1]

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">Euclidean space</span> Fundamental space of geometry

Euclidean space is the fundamental space of geometry, intended to represent physical space. Originally, in Euclid's Elements, it was the three-dimensional space of Euclidean geometry, but in modern mathematics there are Euclidean spaces of any positive integer dimension n, which are called Euclidean n-spaces when one wants to specify their dimension. For n equal to one or two, they are commonly called respectively Euclidean lines and Euclidean planes. The qualifier "Euclidean" is used to distinguish Euclidean spaces from other spaces that were later considered in physics and modern mathematics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latitude</span> Geographic coordinate specifying north–south position

In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north–south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pole, with 0° at the Equator. Lines of constant latitude, or parallels, run east–west as circles parallel to the equator. Latitude and longitude are used together as a coordinate pair to specify a location on the surface of the Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polar coordinate system</span> Coordinates comprising a distance and an angle

In mathematics, the polar coordinate system is a two-dimensional coordinate system in which each point on a plane is determined by a distance from a reference point and an angle from a reference direction. The reference point is called the pole, and the ray from the pole in the reference direction is the polar axis. The distance from the pole is called the radial coordinate, radial distance or simply radius, and the angle is called the angular coordinate, polar angle, or azimuth. Angles in polar notation are generally expressed in either degrees or radians.

<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">Spherical coordinate system</span> Coordinates comprising a distance and two angles

In mathematics, a spherical coordinate system specifies a given point in three-dimensional space by using a distance and two angles as its three coordinates. These are

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Azimuth</span> Horizontal angle from north or other reference cardinal direction

An azimuth is the horizontal angle from a cardinal direction, most commonly north, in a local or observer-centric spherical coordinate system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curvature</span> Mathematical measure of how much a curve or surface deviates from flatness

In mathematics, curvature is any of several strongly related concepts in geometry that intuitively measure the amount by which a curve deviates from being a straight line or by which a surface deviates from being a plane. If a curve or surface is contained in a larger space, curvature can be defined extrinsically relative to the ambient space. Curvature of Riemannian manifolds of dimension at least two can be defined intrinsically without reference to a larger space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angular displacement</span> Displacement measured angle-wise when a body is showing circular or rotational motion

The angular displacement – also called angle of rotation, rotational displacement, or rotary displacement – of a physical body is the angle through which the body rotates around a centre or axis of rotation. Angular displacement may be signed, indicating the sense of rotation ; it may also be greater than a full turn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angular velocity</span> Direction and rate of rotation

In physics, angular velocity, also known as angular frequency vector, is a pseudovector representation of how the angular position or orientation of an object changes with time, i.e. how quickly an object rotates around an axis of rotation and how fast the axis itself changes direction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cylindrical coordinate system</span> 3-dimensional coordinate system

A cylindrical coordinate system is a three-dimensional coordinate system that specifies point positions by the distance from a chosen reference axis (axis L in the image opposite), the direction from the axis relative to a chosen reference direction (axis A), and the distance from a chosen reference plane perpendicular to the axis (plane containing the purple section). The latter distance is given as a positive or negative number depending on which side of the reference plane faces the point.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poincaré half-plane model</span> Upper-half plane model of hyperbolic non-Euclidean geometry

In non-Euclidean geometry, the Poincaré half-plane model is a way of representing the hyperbolic plane using points in the familiar Euclidean plane. Specifically, each point in the hyperbolic plane is represented using a Euclidean point with coordinates whose coordinate is greater than zero, the upper half-plane, and a metric tensor called the Poincaré metric is adopted, in which the local scale is inversely proportional to the coordinate. Points on the -axis, whose coordinate is equal to zero, represent ideal points, which are outside the hyperbolic plane proper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bipolar coordinates</span> 2-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system based on Apollonian circles

Bipolar coordinates are a two-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system based on the Apollonian circles. There is also a third system, based on two poles.

The second moment of area, or second area moment, or quadratic moment of area and also known as the area moment of inertia, is a geometrical property of an area which reflects how its points are distributed with regard to an arbitrary axis. The second moment of area is typically denoted with either an or with a . In both cases, it is calculated with a multiple integral over the object in question. Its dimension is L (length) to the fourth power. Its unit of dimension, when working with the International System of Units, is meters to the fourth power, m4, or inches to the fourth power, in4, when working in the Imperial System of Units or the US customary system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection</span> Azimuthal equal-area map projection

The Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection is a particular mapping from a sphere to a disk. It accurately represents area in all regions of the sphere, but it does not accurately represent angles. It is named for the Swiss mathematician Johann Heinrich Lambert, who announced it in 1772. "Zenithal" being synonymous with "azimuthal", the projection is also known as the Lambert zenithal equal-area projection.

atan2 Arctangent function with two arguments

In computing and mathematics, the function atan2 is the 2-argument arctangent. By definition, is the angle measure between the positive -axis and the ray from the origin to the point in the Cartesian plane. Equivalently, is the argument of the complex number

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inverse curve</span> Curve created by a geometric operation

In inversive geometry, an inverse curve of a given curve C is the result of applying an inverse operation to C. Specifically, with respect to a fixed circle with center O and radius k the inverse of a point Q is the point P for which P lies on the ray OQ and OP·OQ = k2. The inverse of the curve C is then the locus of P as Q runs over C. The point O in this construction is called the center of inversion, the circle the circle of inversion, and k the radius of inversion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Euclidean plane</span> Geometric model of the planar projection of the physical universe

In mathematics, a Euclidean plane is a Euclidean space of dimension two, denoted or . It is a geometric space in which two real numbers are required to determine the position of each point. It is an affine space, which includes in particular the concept of parallel lines. It has also metrical properties induced by a distance, which allows to define circles, and angle measurement.

Volume of an <i>n</i>-ball Size of a mathematical ball

In geometry, a ball is a region in a space comprising all points within a fixed distance, called the radius, from a given point; that is, it is the region enclosed by a sphere or hypersphere. An n-ball is a ball in an n-dimensional Euclidean space. The volume of a n-ball is the Lebesgue measure of this ball, which generalizes to any dimension the usual volume of a ball in 3-dimensional space. The volume of a n-ball of radius R is where is the volume of the unit n-ball, the n-ball of radius 1.

In the hyperbolic plane, as in the Euclidean plane, each point can be uniquely identified by two real numbers. Several qualitatively different ways of coordinatizing the plane in hyperbolic geometry are used.

References

  1. "Radius - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary". Merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2012-05-22.
  2. Definition of Radius at dictionary.reference.com. Accessed on 2009-08-08.
  3. Definition of radius at mathwords.com. Accessed on 2009-08-08.
  4. Barnett Rich, Christopher Thomas (2008), Schaum's Outline of Geometry, 4th edition, 326 pages. McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN   0-07-154412-7, ISBN   978-0-07-154412-2. Online version accessed on 2009-08-08.
  5. Jonathan L. Gross, Jay Yellen (2006), Graph theory and its applications. 2nd edition, 779 pages; CRC Press. ISBN   1-58488-505-X, 9781584885054. Online version accessed on 2009-08-08.
  6. Brown, Richard G. (1997). Andrew M. Gleason (ed.). Advanced Mathematics: Precalculus with Discrete Mathematics and Data Analysis . Evanston, Illinois: McDougal Littell. ISBN   0-395-77114-5.
  7. Krafft, C.; Volokitin, A. S. (1 January 2002). "Resonant electron beam interaction with several lower hybrid waves". Physics of Plasmas. 9 (6): 2786–2797. Bibcode:2002PhPl....9.2786K. doi:10.1063/1.1465420. ISSN   1089-7674. Archived from the original on 14 April 2013. Retrieved 9 February 2013. ...in cylindrical coordinates (r,θ,z) ... and Z=vbzt is the longitudinal position...
  8. Groisman, Alexander; Steinberg, Victor (1997-02-24). "Solitary Vortex Pairs in Viscoelastic Couette Flow". Physical Review Letters. 78 (8). American Physical Society (APS): 1460–1463. arXiv: patt-sol/9610008 . Bibcode:1997PhRvL..78.1460G. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.78.1460. ISSN   0031-9007. S2CID   54814721. "[...]where r, θ, and z are cylindrical coordinates [...] as a function of axial position[...]"