Radius

In classical geometry, a radius 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
name comes from the Latin radius,
meaning ray but also the spoke of a
chariot wheel.[1] The plural of radius can
be either radii (from the Latin plural) or the
conventional English plural radiuses.[2] The
typical abbreviation and mathematical
variable name for radius is r. By extension,
the diameter d is defined as twice the
radius:[3]

Circle with circumference C in black, diameter D in

cyan, radius R in red, and center or origin O in
magenta.

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 …

n Rn

3 0.577 350...

4 0.707 106...

5 0.850 650...

6 1.0

7 1.152 382...

8 1.306 562...

9 1.461 902...

10 1.618 033...

A square, for example (n=4)

The radius r of a regular polygon with n
sides of length s is given by r = Rn s, 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
Bend radius
Filling radius in Riemannian geometry
 Radius of convergence
Radius of convexity
Radius of curvature
Radius of gyration
Semidiameter

References
1. Definition of Radius at
dictionary.reference.com. Accessed on
2009-08-08.
2. "Radius - Definition and More from the
Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary" .
Merriam-webster.com. Retrieved
2012-05-22.
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.
 . 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..."
. Groisman, Alexander; Steinberg, Victor
(1997-02-24). "Solitary Vortex Pairs in
Viscoelastic Couette Flow". Physical
Review Letters. American Physical
Society (APS). 78 (8): 1460–1463.
arXiv:patt-sol/9610008 .
doi:10.1103/physrevlett.78.1460 .
ISSN 0031-9007 . "[...]where r, θ, and z
are cylindrical coordinates [...] as a
function of axial position[...]"

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