can some one help me anser this question?

Question

In Geometric terms, you have rays and lines. A line can be said to start at a given point and continue left and right forever. A Ray however starts at one point and continues 1 direction forever. So which is longer? A Ray or a Line? Give a good argument for your interpretation. How about a circle? What is the end of a circle? Can a Ray of sunshine, become a segment of Sunshine? Can you argue both yes and no?

Answer 1

Neither the ray or the line is longer. They both go on "forever" so they are the same length, theoretically.

I would say a circle ends in the same place it began. I wouldn't continue going, because that would be another "forever" for us all (meaning that rays, lines and circles are the same length). I would measure the circle from the beginning point all the way round then back to that point again.

I don't understand your last question. Maybe someone else will.

Hope this helps!
MaybeLater_x

Answer 2

The length of a ray is infinite as is the length of a line. One cannot be longer than the other. If you were to raeson that a line is twice the length of a ray, then you would have 2*infinity = infinity. This, of course, is untrue because it implies that there is a number larger than infinity, which is impossible.

Any point on the circumference of a circle can be the starting point and also the end point of the circle, if you think of a circle only as the boundary of the circle. But a circle has area which includes the region bounded by the circumference. So in this case, you might think of the start of a circle as the center of the circle (a single point) and the end of the circle as the area bounded by and including the circumference of the circle.

A ray of sunshine starts at the Sun and continues forever unless it is stopped by an object such as the Earth, or Mars or some distant object light years away. If a ray of sunshine parallel to the axis of a parabolic reflector, should hit a parabolic reflector, the l
light will be reflected through the focus of the parabolic reflector.
The distance from the Sun to the reflector could be considered to be one segment of the light ray and the distance from the reflector to the focus to be another segment of the light ray (sunbeam). In fact by using mirrors, you could break a light ray into several segments.

if the Sun suddenly went dark, the current light rays would take about 0.1 seconds to expire. All the time, the sunbeam would be getting shorter and shorter so you might consider its length at anytime during this 0.1 second to be a segment of the beam.
.

Answer 3

In an attempt at answering your Ray Vs Line question:- I do not agree that a line can be said to start at a given point. The property that gives a line its name is that of infinite length in each direction and hence no starting point. As soon as you determine a point on a line as a starting point that line becomes two rays.

In answer to your ray of sunshine question, a ray of sunshine, by definition has a starting point at the Sun. As soon as you attempt to create a segment you take away the source and, in doing so, remove the sunshine.

Answer 4

I doubt that a ray of sunshine can become a segment, but if space is circular, then the ray and the line will both be the same length, since the ray will eventually meet itself at the point where it began.

Circles have no end.

Answer 5

Yes.
Line is longer - continues in both directions to infinity, while a ray starts at one point and goes in one direction to infinity. A ray always has a starting point.
Circle has no end. Just when measuring, you select a point to start your measurement from.
A ray of sunshine cannot become a segment of sunshine. Segments have defined start and end points, rays are infinite in one direction from the starting point.

AHHH! Now I enter Level 4 nirvana - THANK YOU!!

Answer 6

it's useless info that you will never need to know, why stress over it?