Tag Archives: circles

Paper torus with Villarceau circles

Posted on January 3, 2017 by Brent

I made another thing! This is a torus, made from 24 crescent-shaped pieces of paper with slots cut into them so they interlock with each other. I followed these instructions on cutoutfoldup.com. There is also a template with some ideas … Continue reading →

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Complexifying our dots

Posted on October 11, 2016 by Brent

It’s time to up our game a bit. Previously we have considered some cool pictures with dots and bespoked circles, looking for patterns, without really considering what sort of mathematical objects these circles might represent. In fact, they turn out … Continue reading →

Posted in geometry, pictures | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Mystery curve, animated

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Brent

As a follow-on to my previous post, here’s an animation (17MB) showing how the “mystery curve” arises as a sum of circular motions: Recall that the equation for the curve is . The big blue circle corresponds to the term—it … Continue reading →

Posted in complex numbers, geometry, programming | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments