RECENT C & G 2382 question

[Grizzly]

If I had I'd have said the same as you - the name of a straight line between two points on the circumference of a circle is "chord", and the length of the longest such line you can construct is the diameter of the circle.

And so you'd be wrong, as JohnW2 outlined earlier

Thanks for that Ban.
I'm glad you held off defying, I wanted to give others the chance to answer first 'cos I knew Diameter would be a popular answer and didn't want you to thunder in with the proper answer too early.

Not that he's provided the 'proper answer', as JohnW2 outlined earlier

diameter, n.
1.
a. Geom. A straight line passing through the centre of a circle (or sphere), and terminated at each end by its circumference (or surface). Hence extended to a chord of any conic (or of a quadric surface) passing through the centre; and further, to a line passing through the middle points of a system of parallel chords (or through the centres of mean distances of their points of intersection with the curve), in a curve of any order.

 

[ebee]

Yes. Diameter is a length, a distance. The name of that chord is a"Chord" the length of that chord is the diameter of the circle.

Diameter is its length not its name.

Chord is its name not its length.

They asked for its name. (which is chord, although apparently it is also Michael!)

 

[echoes]

Diameter is its length not its name.

It is commonly and usefully used to refer to the length because all diameters [of a circle*] have the same length, but is also the name of a line... (The OED agrees with this)

* edit.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

noun
1 a straight line passing from side to side through the centre of a body or figure , especially a circle or sphere.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I should clarify this:

I'd have said the same as you - the name of a straight line between two points on the circumference of a circle is "chord", and the length of the longest such line you can construct is the diameter of the circle.

If I'd been on WWTBAM, I'd have said "It's 'diameter', Chris, final answer".

 

[ebee]

Yes well so would I

 

[ricicle]

Did you know that if you draw two lines, one out from each end of the diameter, to meet up on the edge of the circle (to form a triangle) then wherever they meet, the angle where they intersect is always 90 deg.

I'll get me coat

 

[holmslaw]

..

 

[ebee]

I wish I'd thought of that

 

[holmslaw]

..

 

[dingbat]

Yes well so would I

Aha, I've got it! I've solved your problem, ebee:

The examiners set a question to which they just want the correct answer, whereas your approach is to wonder what they might have asked..

When somebody bids you goodbye, do you also wonder what they really meant?

Goodbye!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

When French diplomat Tallyrand died in 1836, Austrian diplomat Metternich is supposed to have asked: ‘I wonder what he meant by that?’

 

[SgtTrojan]

I hope one day we can get a good 2391 question. Much more of a debate.

 

[dingbat]

I hope one day we can get a good 2391 question. Much more of a debate.

No debate there.

They are generally pretty clear, with very few options to quibble (although many do).

The problem is - once again - the calibre of the student.

 

[SgtTrojan]

I thought a good one was one I posted a while back.

Name the first three tests to be conducted on a live installation.