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Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center
ArcLength
  • See Also
    • RegionMeasure
    • Perimeter
    • ArcCurvature
    • FrenetSerretSystem
    • CoordinateChartData
    • Area
    • SurfaceArea
    • Volume
    • Integrate
    • NIntegrate
    • CoordinateTransform
    • GeometricScene
  • Related Guides
    • Region Properties and Measures
    • Vector Analysis
    • Solid Geometry
    • Calculus
    • Plane Geometry
    • Precollege Education
    • Synthetic Geometry
    • Interval Arithmetic
    • See Also
      • RegionMeasure
      • Perimeter
      • ArcCurvature
      • FrenetSerretSystem
      • CoordinateChartData
      • Area
      • SurfaceArea
      • Volume
      • Integrate
      • NIntegrate
      • CoordinateTransform
      • GeometricScene
    • Related Guides
      • Region Properties and Measures
      • Vector Analysis
      • Solid Geometry
      • Calculus
      • Plane Geometry
      • Precollege Education
      • Synthetic Geometry
      • Interval Arithmetic

ArcLength[reg]

gives the length of the one-dimensional region reg.

ArcLength[{x1,…,xn},{t,tmin,tmax}]

gives the length of the parametrized curve whose Cartesian coordinates xi are functions of t.

ArcLength[{x1,…,xn},{t,tmin,tmax},chart]

interprets the xi as coordinates in the specified coordinate chart.

Details and Options
Details and Options Details and Options
Examples  
Basic Examples  
Scope  
Special Regions  
Formula Regions  
Mesh Regions  
Derived Regions  
Parametric Formulas  
Options  
Assumptions  
WorkingPrecision  
Applications  
Properties & Relations  
Possible Issues  
See Also
Related Guides
History
Cite this Page
BUILT-IN SYMBOL
  • See Also
    • RegionMeasure
    • Perimeter
    • ArcCurvature
    • FrenetSerretSystem
    • CoordinateChartData
    • Area
    • SurfaceArea
    • Volume
    • Integrate
    • NIntegrate
    • CoordinateTransform
    • GeometricScene
  • Related Guides
    • Region Properties and Measures
    • Vector Analysis
    • Solid Geometry
    • Calculus
    • Plane Geometry
    • Precollege Education
    • Synthetic Geometry
    • Interval Arithmetic
    • See Also
      • RegionMeasure
      • Perimeter
      • ArcCurvature
      • FrenetSerretSystem
      • CoordinateChartData
      • Area
      • SurfaceArea
      • Volume
      • Integrate
      • NIntegrate
      • CoordinateTransform
      • GeometricScene
    • Related Guides
      • Region Properties and Measures
      • Vector Analysis
      • Solid Geometry
      • Calculus
      • Plane Geometry
      • Precollege Education
      • Synthetic Geometry
      • Interval Arithmetic

ArcLength

ArcLength[reg]

gives the length of the one-dimensional region reg.

ArcLength[{x1,…,xn},{t,tmin,tmax}]

gives the length of the parametrized curve whose Cartesian coordinates xi are functions of t.

ArcLength[{x1,…,xn},{t,tmin,tmax},chart]

interprets the xi as coordinates in the specified coordinate chart.

Details and Options

  • ArcLength is also known as length or curve length.
  • A one-dimensional region can be embedded in any dimension greater than or equal to one.
  • The ArcLength of a curve in Cartesian coordinates is .
  • In a general coordinate chart, the ArcLength of a parametric curve is given by , where is the metric.
  • In ArcLength[x,{t,tmin,tmax}], if x is a scalar, ArcLength returns the length of the parametric curve {t,x}.
  • Coordinate charts in the third argument of ArcLength can be specified as triples {coordsys,metric,dim} in the same way as in the first argument of CoordinateChartData. The short form in which dim is omitted may be used.
  • The following options can be given:
  • AccuracyGoalInfinitydigits of absolute accurary sought
    Assumptions $Assumptionsassumptions to make about parameters
    GenerateConditionsAutomaticwhether to generate conditions on parameters
    PerformanceGoal$PerformanceGoalaspects of performance to try to optimize
    PrecisionGoalAutomaticdigits of precision sought
    WorkingPrecision Automaticthe precision used in internal computations
  • Symbolic limits of integration are assumed to be real and ordered. Symbolic coordinate chart parameters are assumed to be in range given by the "ParameterRangeAssumptions" property of CoordinateChartData.
  • ArcLength can be used with symbolic regions in GeometricScene.

Examples

open all close all

Basic Examples  (3)

The length of the line connecting the points , , and :

The length of a circle with radius :

Circumference of a parameterized unit circle:

Length of one revolution of the helix , , expressed in cylindrical coordinates:

Scope  (16)

Special Regions  (3)

Line:

Lines can be used in any number of dimensions:

Only a 1D Simplex has meaningful arc length:

It can be embedded in any dimension:

Circle:

Formula Regions  (2)

The arc length of a circle represented as an ImplicitRegion:

An ellipse:

The arc length of a circle represented as a ParametricRegion:

Using a rational parameterization of the circle:

Mesh Regions  (2)

The arc length of a MeshRegion:

In 3D:

The arc length of a BoundaryMeshRegion in 1D:

Derived Regions  (4)

The portion of a circle intersecting a disk:

The arc length of a Circle intersected with a Triangle:

The arc length of a TransformedRegion:

The measure of a RegionBoundary:

Parametric Formulas  (5)

An infinite curve in polar coordinates with finite length:

The length of the parabola between and :

Arc length specifying metric, coordinate system, and parameters:

Arc length of a curve in higher-dimensional Euclidean space:

The length of a meridian on the two-sphere expressed in stereographic coordinates:

Options  (3)

Assumptions  (1)

The length of a cardioid with arbitrary parameter a:

Adding an assumption that a is positive simplifies the answer:

WorkingPrecision  (2)

Compute the ArcLength using machine arithmetic:

In some cases, the exact answer cannot be computed:

Find the ArcLength using 30 digits of precision:

Applications  (8)

The length of a function curve :

Equivalently:

Compute the length of a knot:

Compute the length of Jupiter's orbit in meters:

The length can be computed using the polar representation of an ellipse:

Alternatively, use elliptic coordinates with half focal distance and constant :

Extract lines from a graphic and compute their coordinate length:

Color a Lissajous curve by distance traversed:

Color Viviani's curve on the sphere by the fraction of distance traversed:

Find mean linear charge density along a circular wire:

Compute the perimeter length of a Polygon:

Properties & Relations  (6)

ArcLength is a non-negative quantity:

ArcLength[r] is the same as RegionMeasure[r] for any one-dimensional region:

ArcLength for a parametric form is defined as an integral:

ArcLength[x,t,c] is equivalent to RegionMeasure[x,{t},c]:

For a 1D region, ArcLength is defined as the integral of 1 over that region:

The circumference of a 2D region is the ArcLength of its RegionBoundary:

Possible Issues  (2)

The parametric form or ArcLength computes the length of possibly multiple coverings:

The region version computes the length of the image:

The length of a region of dimension other than one is Undefined:

See Also

RegionMeasure  Perimeter  ArcCurvature  FrenetSerretSystem  CoordinateChartData  Area  SurfaceArea  Volume  Integrate  NIntegrate  CoordinateTransform  GeometricScene

Function Repository: ArcLengthIntegral  NaturalEquations  WhewellEquation

Related Guides

    ▪
  • Region Properties and Measures
  • ▪
  • Vector Analysis
  • ▪
  • Solid Geometry
  • ▪
  • Calculus
  • ▪
  • Plane Geometry
  • ▪
  • Precollege Education
  • ▪
  • Synthetic Geometry
  • ▪
  • Interval Arithmetic

History

Introduced in 2014 (10.0) | Updated in 2016 (10.4) ▪ 2019 (12.0)

Wolfram Research (2014), ArcLength, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ArcLength.html (updated 2019).

Text

Wolfram Research (2014), ArcLength, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ArcLength.html (updated 2019).

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2014. "ArcLength." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2019. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ArcLength.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2014). ArcLength. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ArcLength.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_arclength, author="Wolfram Research", title="{ArcLength}", year="2019", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ArcLength.html}", note=[Accessed: 04-February-2026]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2025_arclength, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={ArcLength}, year={2019}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ArcLength.html}, note=[Accessed: 04-February-2026]}

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