Word.ws English Dictionary

shoelace formula

shoelace formula proper noun: an algorithm to determine the area of a simple polygon whose vertices are described by their Cartesian coordinates in the plane.

shoelace formula: an algorithm to determine the area of a simple polygon whose vertices are described by their...
Image: Job Bouwman, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Proper noun

the shoelace formula

  1. An algorithm to determine the area of a simple polygon whose vertices are described by their Cartesian coordinates in the plane.

Synonyms of shoelace formula

Origin of shoelace formula

So called because the constant cross-multiplying for the coordinates making up the polygon is analogous to the threading of shoelaces.

Questions about shoelace formula

What does shoelace formula mean?
Shoelace formula means an algorithm to determine the area of a simple polygon whose vertices are described by their Cartesian coordinates in the plane.
What part of speech is shoelace formula?
Shoelace formula is a proper noun.

Words near shoelace formula in the dictionary

  1. shoeing-horns
  2. shoeings
  3. shoeingsmith
  4. shoeingsmiths
  5. shoelace
  6. shoelace formula
  7. shoelace tie
  8. shoelace ties
  9. shoelaced
  10. shoelaces
  11. shoelacing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shoelace formula (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “shoelace formula.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shoelace_formula. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.