Power center

Power center may refer to:

Power center (geometry)

In geometry, the power center of three circles, also called the radical center, is the intersection point of the three radical axes of the pairs of circles. If the radical center lies outside of all three circles, then it is the center of the unique circle (the radical circle) that intersects the three given circles orthogonally; the construction of this orthogonal circle corresponds to Monge's problem. This is a special case of the three conics theorem.

The three radical axes meet in a single point, the radical center, for the following reason. The radical axis of a pair of circles is defined as the set of points that have equal power h with respect to both circles. For example, for every point P on the radical axis of circles 1 and 2, the powers to each circle are equal, h₁ = h₂. Similarly, for every point on the radical axis of circles 2 and 3, the powers must be equal, h₂ = h₃. Therefore, at the intersection point of these two lines, all three powers must be equal, h₁ = h₂ = h₃. Since this implies that h₁ = h₃, this point must also lie on the radical axis of circles 1 and 3. Hence, all three radical axes pass through the same point, the radical center.

Power center (retail)

A power center is an unenclosed shopping center with a typical range of 250,000 square feet (23,000 m²) to 600,000 square feet (56,000 m²) of gross leasable area that usually contains three or more big box retailers and various smaller retailers (usually located in strip plazas) with a common parking area shared among the retailers. It is likely to have more money spent on features and architecture than a traditional big box shopping center.

Power centers function similarly to a traditional shopping mall, but are primarily built around the movement and access capabilities of private vehicles rather than pedestrian foot traffic.

In 1986, "280 Metro Center"", an open-air, strip shopping complex composed of discount and warehouse retailers, opened in Colma, California in the United States; it is credited with being the first ever power center.Northern Lights Shopping Center in Economy, Pennsylvania, which opened in 1962, could be considered an earlier example of a power center based on square footage (it had 609,405 square feet (57,000 m²) of leaseable space until the demolition of the former J. C. Penney building in 2006) and having multiple anchors (it had four until the aforementioned demolition, with two of the remaining three anchors currently being vacant as of 2014), though it has largely become more of a traditional community-style strip mall since the early 2000s and is generally considered a dead mall due to its high vacancy rate.