ScienForge

Circle calculator

Compute radius, diameter, circumference and area of a circle from any one of them, plus arc length and sector area.

Area
78.5398
Diameter10
Circumference31.4159
Radius5
Arc length5.23599
Sector area13.09
Chord length5

Everything about a circle follows from its radius and the constant π, which is the ratio of any circle’s circumference to its diameter. That ratio is the same for every circle, which is the whole reason π is interesting.

C = 2πr   A = πr²   arc = rθ   sector = ½r²θ

The arc and sector formulas require θ in radians, not degrees. One radian is the angle that cuts an arc equal in length to the radius, so a full turn is 2π radians. Converting is a matter of multiplying degrees by π/180.

Area scales with the square

Double the radius and the circumference doubles, but the area quadruples. A 16-inch pizza has 78% more food than a 12-inch one, not 33% more, which makes the larger size almost always better value.

Why radians exist at all

Degrees are arbitrary — 360 is a historical choice with no mathematical basis. Radians make the formulas clean and, more importantly, make calculus work: the derivative of sin x is cos x only when x is measured in radians. In any degrees-based version an awkward factor of π/180 appears everywhere.