Toolbox
A formula sheet plus reference tools for calculator, equation solver, units, elements, graphs and molecules.
Square calculator
Side, diagonal, area or perimeter as input; get side, diagonal, perimeter, area, circumradius and inradius
Enter side a; everything else follows.
d=a\sqrt{2}=5\times1.4142=7.071
- 1Given
Collect the given quantities first.
- 2Perimeter
Add all sides to get the perimeter.
- 3Area
Apply the area formula; the unit is squared.
- 4Pythagoras
In a right triangle the squares of the legs add up to the square of the hypotenuse.
- 5Circumcircle
Circumradius from R = abc/(4S) or half the diagonal.
- 6Result
Collect all computed quantities.
Concept
A square is both a rectangle and a rhombus: four equal sides, four right angles, perpendicular equal diagonals.
Area can be a^2 from the side or d^2/2 from the diagonal - handy when only the diagonal is given.
Going further
- Why S = d^2/2
- The diagonals cut the square into four congruent isosceles right triangles of area d^2/8 each.
- Incircle and circumcircle
- Inradius r = a/2 and circumradius R = a sqrt2/2, so r : R is always 1 : sqrt2.
- Square and irrationals
- A unit square has diagonal sqrt2, one of the first irrational numbers ever discovered.
Common mistakes
- Area is in cm2, perimeter in cm - keep them apart.
- From a perimeter, divide by 4 first, then square.
- The diagonal is sqrt2 times the side, not twice the side.
