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 are vertical lines). Corresponding sides of these triangles are in the same ratio, so: If point "S" has coordinates ("x","m") then |"PS"| = |"y" - "m"| and the distance from "P" to the line is: Since "S" is on the line, we can find the value of m, and finally obtain: A variation of this proof is to place V at P and compute the area of the triangle ∆"UVT" two ways to obtain that formula_17 where D is the altitude of ∆"UVT" drawn to the hypoteneuse of ∆"UVT" from "P". The distance formula can then used to express formula_18,