Area of a circle "ds" over the whole circle formula_33 is just the arc length, which is its circumference, so this shows that the area "A" enclosed by the circle is equal to formula_34 times the circumference of the circle. Note that the area of a semicircle of radius r can be computed by the integral formula_35. By trigonometric substitution, we substitute formula_36, hence formula_37 The last step follows since the trigonometric identity formula_42 implies that formula_43 and formula_44 have equal integrals over the interval formula_45, using integration by substitution. But on the other hand, since formula_46, the sum of the two integrals is
Area of a circle formula_53. The calculations Archimedes used to approximate the area numerically were laborious, and he stopped with a polygon of 96 sides. A faster method uses ideas of Willebrord Snell ("Cyclometricus", 1621), further developed by Christiaan Huygens ("De Circuli Magnitudine Inventa", 1654), described in . Given a circle, let "u" be the perimeter of an inscribed regular "n-"gon, and let "U" be the perimeter of a circumscribed regular "n-"gon. Then "u" and "U" are lower and upper bounds for the circumference of the circle that become sharper and sharper as "n" increases, and their average ("u" + "U")/2 is an especially