Basic information about circles

A circle is all points in the same plane that lie at an equal distance from a center point. The circle
is only composed of the points on the border. You could think of a circle as a hula hoop. It's only
the points on the border that are the circle. The points within the hula hoop are not part of the
circle and are called interior points.
The distance between the midpoint and the circle border is called the radius. A line segment that
has the endpoints on the circle and passes through the midpoint is called the diameter. The
diameter is twice the size of the radius. A line segment that has its endpoints on the circular
border but does not pass through the midpoint is called a chord.

The distance around the circle is called the circumference, C, and could be determined either by
using the radius, r, or the diameter, d:
\C=2πr\C=2πr
C=πdC=πd
A circle is the same as 360°. You can divide a circle into smaller portions. A part of a circle is
called an arc and an arc is named according to its angle. Arcs are divided into minor arcs (0° < v
< 180°), major arcs (180° < v < 360°) and semicircles (v = 180°).
The length of an arc, l, is determined by plugging the degree measure of the Arc, v, and the
circumference of the whole circle, C, into the following formula:
l=C⋅v360l=C⋅v360
When diameters intersect at the central of the circle they form central angles. Like when you cut
a cake you begin your pieces in the middle.
Example
As in the cake above we divide our circle into 8 pieces with the same angle. The circumference
of the circle is 20 length units. Determine the length of the arc of each piece.
First we need to find the angle for each piece, since we know that a full circle is 360° we can
easily tell that each piece has an angle of 360/8=45°. We plug these values into our formula for
the length of arcs:
l=C⋅v360l=C⋅v360
l=20⋅45360=2.5l=20⋅45360=2.5
Hence the length of our arcs are 2.5 length units. We could even easier have told this by simply
diving the circumference by the number of same size pieces: 20/8=2.5

The radius of a circle:

The radius of a circle is the distance from the center of the

circle to the outside edge.

The diameter of a circle:

The diameter of a circle is longest distance across a circle. (The

diameter cuts through the center of the circle. This is what
makes it the longest distance.)
 The circumference of a circle (the perimeter of a circle):

The circumference of a circle is the perimeter -- the distance

around the outer edge.
Circumference =
where r = the radius of the circle
and pi = 3.141592...

The area of a circle:

Area =
where r = the radius of the circle
and pi = 3.141592...

A chord of a circle:

A chord of a circle is a line segment that connects one point on

the edge of the circle with another point on the circle.
(The diameter is a chord -- it's just the longest chord!)


An arc of a circle:

An arc of a circle is a segment of the circumference of the circle.

The formula for the arc length of a circle:

 Arc length of a circle in radians:

Arc Length =
Arc length of a circle in degrees:

Arc Length =

A sector of a circle:

A sector of a circle is a pie shaped portion of the area of the

circle. Technically, the piece of pie is between two segments
coming out of the center of the circle.

The area of a sector of a circle:

Sector area of a circle in radians:

Sector Area =
Sector area of a circle in degrees:

Sector Area =