# Thread: equation of a square; need equation similar to eqn for circle

1. ## equation of a square; need equation similar to eqn for circle

I am stuck with a question:

I have a square, with sides 2a. Ik want to make an equation similar to x^2 + y^2 = r^2 for a circle. Do you know if this is possible?

Bram

2. Originally Posted by bramplas

I am stuck with a question:

I have a square, with sides 2a. Ik want to make an equation similar to x^2 + y^2 = r^2 for a circle. Do you know if this is possible?
For a square centered at the origin and that looks like a baseball diamond, you could refer to this (the 2nd and 4th diagrams down):

http://polymathprogrammer.com/2010/0...th-1-equation/

In the diagram, the c value is the length of the segment from the origin to a vertex.

A hypotenuse in the diagram will be square root of two multiplied by c, ** so c will be your 2a divided by the square root of two, or

$a\sqrt{2}.$

Here is the equation:

$|x| \ + \ |y| \ = \ a\sqrt{2}$

** $\ \ \$ You may need to work this out to see this.