Center

Pronunciation: /ˈsɛn tər/ ?

A center is an object that has a symmetrical relationship to a set.^[1] There are several different types of sets for which centers are defined:

• Sets of numbers: The most common centers used for sets of numbers are the mean, median and mode.
• Datasets (statistics): Besides the centers defined for sets of numbers, there are a number of centers that are important in statistics, including the geometric mean.
• Geometric objects: Each class of geometric object may have one or more centers defined. The geometric object with the most centers defined may be the triangle: centroid, circumcenter, incenter, center of the nine point circle and many more.

More Information

• McAdams, David. Circle. allmathwords.org. Life is a Story Problem.org. 2009-03-12. http://www.allmathwords.org/article.aspx?lang=en&id=Circle.
• McAdams, David. Circumcenter of a Triangle. allmathwords.org. Life is a Story Problem.org. 2009-03-12. http://www.allmathwords.org/article.aspx?lang=en&id=Circumcenter.
• McAdams, David. Incenter. allmathwords.org. Life is a Story Problem.org. 2009-03-12. http://www.allmathwords.org/article.aspx?lang=en&id=Incenter.

Cite this article as:

Center. 2010-01-09. All Math Words Encyclopedia. Life is a Story Problem.org. http://www.allmathwords.org/en/c/center.html.

Translations

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Image Credits

• All images and manipulatives are by David McAdams unless otherwise stated. All images by David McAdams are Copyright © Life is a Story Problem.org and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Revision History

2010-01-09: Added "References" (McAdams, David.)
2008-06-11: Added paragraph on center of gravity (McAdams, David.)
2008-06-07: Corrected spelling (McAdams, David.)
2008-03-25: Changed More Information to match current standard (McAdams, David.)
2008-02-05: Added the concept of the center of a set (McAdams, David.)
2008-02-03: Changed scripted keywords to links (McAdams, David.)
2007-07-12: Initial version (McAdams, David.)