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
Distance from a point to a line formula_39 perpendicular to the line. The distance from the point to the line is then just the norm of that vector. This more general formula is not restricted to two dimensions. If the vector space is orthonormal and if the line ("l" ) goes through point A and has a direction vector formula_45, the distance between point P and line ("l") is where formula_47 is the cross product of the vectors formula_48 and formula_45 and where formula_50 is the vector norm of formula_45. Note that cross products only exist in dimensions 3 and 7. Distance from a point to a