Can “semicircle” be used to refer to a part-circle that is not a exact half-circle?
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Going through a specification sheet for an engineering device, I glanced upon this phrase: ...the angular scanning range of the device is a semicircle of 300 degrees... A semicircle is usually defined as a proper half of a circle - in mathematical terms a circle of angle 180 degrees. Clearly 300 degrees is more than a half, it is closer to being 5/6th of a circle. Is it grammatically correct to refer to non-full circles as a "semicircle", even though they are not exactly a half-circle.
grammaticality mathematics
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asked 13 hours ago
Transistor Overlord Transistor Overlor