Sferikë

Sferikë is the Albanian term associated with the concept of the sphere. In geometric usage, it denotes a three-dimensional figure consisting of all points in space at a fixed distance, called the radius, from a given point, the center. The term is used both as a noun referring to spheres and as an adjective meaning spherical.

Mathematically, a sphere with center at (a, b, c) and radius r is described by the equation (x − a)^2 + (y − b)^2 + (z − c)^2 = r^2. The surface of the sphere is a two-dimensional manifold, while the interior forms a solid ball in many contexts.

Key properties include its surface area and its volume. The surface area is 4πr^2, and the volume is (4/3)πr^3. If r = 1, these simplify to 4π for area and 4/3π for volume. Spherical geometry studies these surfaces and their properties, including curvature and symmetry.

Applications of spherical shapes span science and engineering: astronomy for celestial bodies, geodesy and planetology for modeling shapes of planets and satellites, computer graphics and physics simulations, acoustics, and various fields of mathematics. Spherical symmetry often simplifies problems in physics, allowing models that depend only on distance from a center.

Origin and usage: the root sfer- comes from the Latin sphaera and Greek sphaira, with Albanian adaptations that produce sferikë as the term for sphere or spherical in technical language.