Stupid question but...

[Adam Y.]

Is there a radius of a square? I heard this question asked in quiz bowl and it seemed like it was just typed out wrong.

[Kevin Sevcik]

I suppose there's various things you could consider a radius... like the radius of a circle circumscribed around or inscribed inside the square. or a radius of gyration. erm. But a google search has turned up the following:
Traditionally the Radius of a square is a straight line from one corner to the center point.
So go figure. There's your answer.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Hah! the pattern recognition powers of the brain triumph again over sense! Heh. he said radius of a SQUARE. Dont worry, I made the same mistake the first two times I read it, too. I just think it's funny how the brain works and that two people can make the exact same mistake reading something. Your brain saw radius and immediately associated it with something round, then assumed that he couldn't possibly have said square, and just filled in somethings sensible instead. Its rather amusing and goes along with that chain letter about only needing the first and last letters of words to make sense of them. Hrm. I think this would be a decent way to disprove it.....

[Clark Gilbert]

First I saw "stupid question" and then saw radius and thought he was being really dumb. Then the whole mind game took over.

My actual answer is still yes!

ra·di·us
Abbr. r or rad. Mathematics.

A line segment that joins the center of a regular polygon with any of its vertices.

[Adam Y.]

Hah! the pattern recognition powers of the brain triumph again over sense! Heh. he said radius of a SQUARE. Dont worry, I made the same mistake the first two times I read it, too.
Don't worry about 10 people did the same thing but we did thought diagonal since radius came latter. What an odd question to ask?

[robotic_ninja]

any normal polygon can have a radius, but most people only think of circles. The radius of a square, or any other nprmal polygon is the distance from it's 'center' to one of it's corners.

[telkanuru]

Yes. It becoms simple when you realize that a circle is naught but a polygon with infinite sides. Remember approximating PI in 9th grade :rolleyes: