Skip to content
Exit presentation

Playing with Constructions

Straight across the middle

Lay a ruler across a glass bangle. Across the middle, the ruler shows the biggest number.

Loading lab…

The rule

Figure 1 — each half is one radius. Two radii make the diameter.

Go from the centre to the edge of the circle. That is one radius.

Continue through the centre to the other side. That is a second radius.

The whole line is the diameter. It is twice the radius.

Example

Radius 30 mm gives diameter 60 mm. The mm means millimetres.

Double the radius: 2 × 30 = 60 mm.

Diameter 70 mm gives radius 35 mm.

Divide the diameter by 2: 70 ÷ 2 = 35 mm.

Watch out!

An edge-to-edge line is a diameter only through the centre. A line that misses the centre is shorter.

Jump to lesson

This track

  1. 0 Start here
  2. 1 Exact, not neat
  3. 2 What a circle really is
  4. 3 Straight across the middle
  5. 4 Carrying a length
  6. 5 Testing a square corner
  7. 6 Steps that have to wait
  8. 7 The big picture
  9. 8 Track quiz

Other tracks