What Is the Areal Radius in Geography?

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around the concept of "areal radius" in geography, which has been mentioned by a professor but lacks clear definitions in available resources. Participants are exploring its meaning and context, particularly in relation to other concepts in physics and geometry.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Conceptual clarification

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants are questioning the context in which "areal radius" was mentioned and its possible connections to concepts like areal velocity vector and general relativity. There is a suggestion that it may relate to curvature and geodesics.

Discussion Status

The discussion is ongoing, with participants sharing thoughts and speculations about the term "areal radius." Some have provided potential connections to other areas of study, but there is no consensus on its definition or application yet.

Contextual Notes

There is a noted lack of resources or definitions in textbooks and online searches, which may be contributing to the confusion surrounding the term.

edwiddy
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Homework Statement


My professor mentioned something called "areal radius" briefly in class, but it's I'm unclear as to what it means. It doesn't appear in the index of any textbook I have, and google is pretty unhelpful since it parses it as "area" or "a real" and returns lots of results like that. Can anyone provide some insight?


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The Attempt at a Solution


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thanks!
 
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In what context did he mention it?
 
I think there might be the case of <areal velocity vector> when speaking about Kepler's laws.
 
That could be one. I was more thinking of GR (and curved spaces in general), where areal radius would mean (I think) \sqrt{A/Pi}, which because of the curvature is not the same as coordinate radius, or proper length radius along a geodesic. Maybe too advanced :)
 

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