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Thread: how many sides to a circle?

  1. #1

    how many sides to a circle?

    how many sides to a circle? and name them. it was a question on one or my sons freshmen college exam

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  3. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by azhiaziam View Post
    how many sides to a circle? and name them. it was a question on one or my sons freshmen college exam
    Geometrically speaking, circles do not have sides; hence the number of sides is zero. I name that zero number of sides, "Dr. No"

    Other perspectives moot: circle has two sides (as a coin); one side (as a continuous curved line); infinitely many sides (as a polygon with infinitely many sides).

    Names optional

    Sounds like a test-maker's having some fun...

  4. #3
    How about two.... outside and inside...
    It is not enough to understand the natural world; the point is to defend and preserve it. - 'Ed Abbey'

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Hnak View Post
    How about two.... outside and inside...

  6. #5
    ephemeral excursionist blueeyes's Avatar
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    I liked this answer from http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/qq/dat...eorganne1.html

    How many sides does a circle have?
    My son answered "infinate" on a test and was corrected. The school insists the answer is 0.

    Thanks,
    georganne

    Hi Georganne, There are two sources of ambiguity here.

    1. The word CIRCLE sometimes refers to a circular disk (because it is common to talk about "the area of a circle"), but often the word refers only to the boundary of the disk (namely, the points that are equally distant from the point at the center of the figure).
    2. The meaning of the word SIDE depends on its context. A polygon in the plane has, by definition, n vertices and each pair of consecutive vertices are joined by a side. It is clear that a polygon with n vertices has n sides. In general, the word side depends on the dimension of the figure -- a side is always part of the boundary.

    So what is the side of a circle? If you think of the circle as a disk then it it has an up-side and a down-side. If you think of it as a curve, then it has an inside and an outside. If you think of it as the limit of an n-sided regular polygon, then one can justify the answer that the circle has infinitely many infinitesimal sides. Our conclusion:
    the question, "How many sides does a circle have?", is too ambiguous to have a definite answer. Perhaps the appropriate response is "there is no natural way of saying what the side of a circle is." Chris and Harley
    Chere'




  7. #6
    The side or sides of a circle is or are undefined.
    IF she isn't happy no ones happy. If she isn't happy long enough you'll unhappy with half your stuff.
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  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Hnak View Post
    How about two.... outside and inside...
    x2
    But if I agreed with you, we would both be wrong.

  9. #8
    I would have said "one"... as in one continuous boundary.

    But after reading the other answers it looks like the question needs to be put into some type of context.... or else its just a stupid question...

  10. #9
    Content Provider Emeritus ratagonia's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by blueeyes View Post
    I liked this answer from http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/qq/dat...eorganne1.html

    My son answered "infinate" on a test and was corrected. The school insists the answer is 0.
    OUTSIDE Utah, even if "infinite" was accepted as an answer, "infinate" would not be.

    INSIDE Utah, being able to spell common words is not considered a requirement for being in college.

    Tom

  11. #10
    ephemeral excursionist blueeyes's Avatar
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    Well that was off some website so who knows they may have been from Arkansas.
    Chere'




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