How to find the surface area of a sphere?

AI Thread Summary
The surface area of a sphere is calculated using the formula 4 Pi r². To derive this formula without calculus, one approach involves using geometry, such as inscribing triangles within a circle and summing their areas. The discussion highlights that while algebraic and geometric methods can be used, many traditional proofs, including Archimedes' method, inherently involve concepts that lead to calculus. The importance of limits in understanding areas of curves is also noted, suggesting that some calculus principles may be unavoidable. Ultimately, various methods exist to demonstrate the surface area of a sphere, but they often touch on calculus concepts.
live4physics
Messages
24
Reaction score
0
4 Pi r2

I know this formula, but anyone knows, how can I figure out (by methods, algebra) the sphere surface formula ?

Thanks
 
Mathematics news on Phys.org
You might, for example, differentiate the formula for the volume of a ball with respect to the radius.

There are many other ways as well.
 
arildno said:
You might, for example, differentiate the formula for the volume of a ball with respect to the radius.

Sorry, I did not say, but I would like not to use calculus for this, just geometry or algebra for demonstration.

For exemple:
the triangle area is:
A_{t} = \frac{b h} { 2 }
if I put a triangle inside a circle, where the top of it is the centre of circle, and I use infinity number of triangles, and with base near to zero, the sum of all bases is igual 2 r \pi and the height will be iqual the radius of circle, then, the area of circle will be the sum of area for all triangles, i.e.,

A_{c} = \frac{2 r \pi r } { 2 } = \pi r^2

Thank you very much.
 
Last edited:
Well, you might have a go at Archimedes' way of proving it, here's a link to a page describing that method:
http://www.maths.uwa.edu.au/~schultz/3M3/L7Archimedes1.html
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Archimedes (although he didn't know it) invented integral calculus to get things like the calculation of pi by taking the limit of areas of regular polygons to get the area of a circle.
 
In general there is no way to determine the area under a curve or of a curved surface without using some kind of limit process, which is at least walking on the boundary of calculus.
 
Suppose ,instead of the usual x,y coordinate system with an I basis vector along the x -axis and a corresponding j basis vector along the y-axis we instead have a different pair of basis vectors ,call them e and f along their respective axes. I have seen that this is an important subject in maths My question is what physical applications does such a model apply to? I am asking here because I have devoted quite a lot of time in the past to understanding convectors and the dual...
Insights auto threads is broken atm, so I'm manually creating these for new Insight articles. In Dirac’s Principles of Quantum Mechanics published in 1930 he introduced a “convenient notation” he referred to as a “delta function” which he treated as a continuum analog to the discrete Kronecker delta. The Kronecker delta is simply the indexed components of the identity operator in matrix algebra Source: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/what-exactly-is-diracs-delta-function/ by...
Back
Top