Area of a circle

In geometry, the area enclosed by a circle of radius r is πr². Here the Greek letter π represents the constant ratio of the circumference of any circle to its diameter, approximately equal to 3.14159.

One method of deriving this formula, which originated with Archimedes, involves viewing the circle as the limit of a sequence of regular polygons with an increasing number of sides. The area of a regular polygon is half its perimeter multiplied by the distance from its center to its sides, and because the sequence tends to a circle, the corresponding formula–that the area is half the circumference times the radius–namely, A = 1/2 × 2πr × r, holds for a circle.