Area of a circle Measurement of a Circle" (c. 260 BCE), compare the area enclosed by a circle to a right triangle whose base has the length of the circle's circumference and whose height equals the circle's radius. If the area of the circle is not equal to that of the triangle, then it must be either greater or less. We eliminate each of these by contradiction, leaving equality as the only possibility. We use regular polygons in the same way. Suppose that the area "C" enclosed by the circle is greater than the area "T" = ⁄"cr" of the triangle. Let "E" denote
Area of a circle "area" and "circumference". The analytical definitions are seen to be equivalent, if it is agreed that the circumference of the circle is measured as a rectifiable curve by means of the integral The integral appearing on the right is an abelian integral whose value is a half-period of the sine function, equal to . Thus formula_6 is seen to be true as a theorem. Several of the arguments that follow use only concepts from elementary calculus to reproduce the formula formula_1, but in many cases to regard these as actual proofs, they rely implicitly on the fact that one can