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Mathematics

Submitted to: jane bangayan

Submitted by: benedict baguinon
 Area of a circle – formula and examples

The area of a circle can be thought of as the number of square units of space the
circle occupies. This can be found using either the radius or the diameter, which we
will cover in the examples below. We will also look at some examples of word
problems involving area that you may come across in your studies.

Examples of finding the area of a circle

We will use the following formula to find the area of any circle. Notice that this
formula uses the radius, so we will have to convert when we are given the diameter
instead. Let’s look at both cases.

Example:
formula for the area of a circle

Example: (given radius)

Find the area of a circle with a radius of 5 meters.

Solution:
Apply the formula: A=πr2 with radius r=5. Remember that π is about 3.14.

A=π(5)2=25π≈75.5 m2

A few comments about this final answer.

Since the units of the radius were in meters, the answer is in square meters. This can
be written out in words, or as m2. Also, the final answer can be written in terms of π
(25π square meters) or as a decimal approximation (75.5 square meters). Which one
you use depends on the application and the problem you are working on.

Example (given diameter)

Find the area of a circle with a diameter of 6 feet.

Solution
The radius of any circle is always half the diameter. Since the diameter of the circle
is 6 feet, the radius must be 3 feet (the radius is always half of the diameter). So, we
can apply the formula using r=3.
A=π(3)2=9π≈28.3 ft2

As you can see, it is important to pay attention to whether or not you are given the
radius or the diameter of the circle. In some word problems though, this may not
always be as clear.

Word problems involving the area of a circle

Not every problem you will encounter will simply say “find the area”. In the next
two examples, you will see other types of questions you might be asked.

Example
Jason is painting a large circle on one wall of his new apartment. The largest
distance across the circle will be 8 feet. Approximately how many square feet of wall
will the circle cover?

Solution
Whenever you are asked to find the number of square feet covered by something,
you are finding an area. To find the area of Jason’s circle, we first need to figure out
if we have been given the radius or the diameter. By definition, the diameter of a
circle is the longest distance across the circle, so we know here that the diameter is 8
feet. This means that the radius is 4 feet. Therefore:

A=π(4)2=16π≈50.2 square feet

So, Jason’s circle will cover about 50.2 square feet of his wall.

Example
The area of a circle is 81π square units. What is the radius of this circle?

Solution
To answer this question, you will have to remember a little bit of algebra. Use the
formula and substitute the values you know. Then, solve for the radius, r.
Start with the area formula.
A=πr2
Substitute in A=81π since you know this is the area.
81π=πr2
Divide both sides by π.
81=r2
This can also be written as:
r2=81
Take the square root to find r. Since this is a radius, the value of r must be positive.
r=81−−√=9
Therefore, the radius must be 9.
 Area of a Circle
The distance around a circle is called its circumference. The distance across a circle
through its center is called its diameter. We use the Greek letter (pronounced Pi) to
represent the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter. In the last lesson,
we learned that the formula for circumference of a circle is: . For simplicity,
we use = 3.14. We know from the last lesson that the diameter of a circle is twice as
long as the radius. This relationship is expressed in the following formula: .

The area of a circle is the number of square units inside that circle. If
each square in the circle to the left has an area of 1 cm2, you could count the total
number of squares to get the area of this circle. Thus, if there were a total of 28.26
squares, the area of this circle would be 28.26 cm2 However, it is easier to use one of
the following formulas:
or
where is the area, and is the radius. Let's look at some examples involving the
area of a circle. In each of the three examples below, we will use = 3.14 in our
calculations.

Example 1: The radius of a circle is 3 inches. What is the area of the circle?

Solution:

= 3.14 · (3 in) · (3 in)

= 3.14 · (9 in)
= 28.26 in
 Example 2: The diameter of a circle is 8 centimeters. What is the area of the
circle?

8 cm = 2 ·
8 cm ÷ 2 =
= 4 cm

= 3.14 · (4 cm) · (4 cm)

= 50.24 cm

Example 3: The area of a circle is 78.5 square meters. What is the radius
of the circle?

78.5 m = 3.14 · ·
78.5 m ÷ 3.14 · ·
25 m = ·
=5m

Summary: Given the radius or diameter of a circle, we can find its area. We can also
find the radius (and diameter) of a circle given its area. The formulas for the
diameter and area of a circle are listed below:

or