rectangle vs. square

[Dan Goncharoff]

First, when did "rectangle" ever include "oblong"?

Second, what would be the justification for using "ellipse" when describing
a circle, or rectangle for square? It may be correct, but it's not
informative.

DanG

On Jun 26, 2010 7:39 PM, "Garson O'Toole" <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

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Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>

Subject: Re: rectangle vs. square
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Here is another example. Formally every circle is also an ellipse. The
set of all circles is a subset of the set of all ellipses. But the
informal use of these terms is different, e.g.:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_a_circle_and_a_ellipse

What is the difference between a circle and a ellipse?
Basically a circle has a constant radius throughout and an ellipse does not.

This informal use suggests that a circle is not an ellipse.
Garson


On Sat, Jun 26, 2010 at 7:21 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
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