Circle of a sphere Circle of a sphere A circle of a sphere is a circle that lies on a sphere. Such a circle can be formed as the intersection of a sphere and a plane, or of two spheres. A circle on a sphere whose plane passes through the center of the sphere is called a great circle; otherwise it is a small circle. Circles of a sphere have radius less than or equal to the sphere radius, with equality when the circle is a great circle. In the geographic coordinate system on a globe, the parallels of latitude are such circles, with
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