Re: What does "circumference" mean?
- From: William Hughes <wpihughes@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2007 09:16:29 -0800
On Nov 12, 9:19 am, Brian Chandler <imaginator...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
William Hughes wrote:
On Nov 11, 1:33 pm, Brian Chandler <imaginator...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Can anyone tell me? (I suppose this is a trick question, but I'd love
to know the answer...)
Brian Chandlerhttp://imaginatorium.org
Please include your question in the body of the text
Sorry. That was an error...
The circumference of a figure is the length of the
boundary of a figure.
OK, that's what at least one of my dictionaries said. Of course the
question is really all about this business of a circle being a curve,
rather than a round shape (i.e. whether the interior of a circle is
part of the circle, or something else).
Normally, I would describe the thing that includes the interior
as a "disc" (or 2-ball) and the boundary (the curve) as a circle.
This usage seems to be fairly standard.
If you define a circle as a
set of points equidistant from its centre, then the only meaning left
for "circumference" is the _length_ of the circle itself.
I have seen the term "circumference" used to describe both the
boundary and the length of the boundary. As you note, the former use
doesn't make a lot of sense if you have defined the boundary
in some other fashion (e.g. as the set of points equidistant from
the center).
But I'm translating a textbook for schoolkids, which doesn't do things
axiomatically, so I need to know the intuitive position from which
American-English-speaking kids would start. My mathematical education
was half a century and an ocean away, and to me, at least some of the
time the circumference of a circle is the boundary itself - implying
that the "circle" includes the disc inside it. (But still pi is the
ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter - no need to
put "length" in front of either circumference or diameter.)
Indeed, the informal usage of "circumference" is contradictory.
You do not indicate in which direction you are translating.
If you are translating into English then
I would avoid the term if possible, if not use it exclusively
to mean the length of the boundary.
If you are translating from English , and you have to translate
"circumference", then you will have to be guided by context as
to the original intended meaning.
Googling for things like "point on the circumference of a circle" I
found plenty of evidence that this terminology is alive and well, but
I've seen cases here where someone innocently refers to a 'disc' as a
'circle' and gets jumped on. I'm still trying to work out if there is
a real American/British difference in usage.
I don't know. I would tend to think of the use of "circumference"
to mean boundary (rather than length of boundary) to be an informal
usage, rather than an American or British usage, but this
is based on no more than a vague feeling.
(Note, to me the usage in a typical school textbook would
be informal)
- William Hughes
.
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- What does "circumference" mean?
- From: Brian Chandler
- Re: What does "circumference" mean?
- From: William Hughes
- Re: What does "circumference" mean?
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