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    jhicks_math
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    The document uses a Chinese fan to explain the area formula for a circle. It shows that when the fan is folded along its circular boundary, its shape approximates a triangle with height r (the radius) and base equal to the circumference of the circle, which is 2πr. This allows us to use the triangle area formula, yielding an area of 1/2 * base * height = 1/2 * 2πr * r = πr^2, demonstrating the area formula for a circle.

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    The document uses a Chinese fan to explain the area formula for a circle. It shows that when the fan is folded along its circular boundary, its shape approximates a triangle with height r (the radius) and base equal to the circumference of the circle, which is 2πr. This allows us to use the triangle area formula, yielding an area of 1/2 * base * height = 1/2 * 2πr * r = πr^2, demonstrating the area formula for a circle.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    134 views2 pages

    Chinese Fans

    Uploaded by

    jhicks_math
    The document uses a Chinese fan to explain the area formula for a circle. It shows that when the fan is folded along its circular boundary, its shape approximates a triangle with height r (the radius) and base equal to the circumference of the circle, which is 2πr. This allows us to use the triangle area formula, yielding an area of 1/2 * base * height = 1/2 * 2πr * r = πr^2, demonstrating the area formula for a circle.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    Explanation for the Area formula of a Circle

    Area of a circle is r, where r is the radius of the circle. I will be using a Chinese Fan to give an explanation for the area formula of a circle. Below we have a picture of a Chinese fan whose boundary represents a circle and the black dot represents the center and the black line denotes the radius r.

    We notice that the Chinese Fan has folding along the boundary. We take a string and measure the distance around the boundary of the fan as shown below.

    Then the length of the string is equal to the distance around the boundary which is equal to the circumference of the circle = 2r.

    Now fold the fan as shown below:

    Approximately, it looks like a triangle with r as the height of the triangle and its base equal to the circumference of the circle. We notice that when we are folding the Chinese Fan we are compressing the folding and the length of the base is equal to the length of the string= 2r. Hence the area of the circle Area of the triangle= 2 base X height= 2 (2r)(r)= r square units.

    Pictures taken from http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/chinese_fan_craft.htm

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