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Ruler and compass constructions

Filed in Maths on August 23rd 05 .

Diagram to help constructing a regular pentagon - see links for details

  • Wikipedia page on ruler and compass constructions in general and famously impossible constructions
  • Graphical Ruler and Compass Editor Java applet allows you to place points on a canvas and then build constructions
  • GCSE constructions including midpoint of a line and bisection of an angle
  • Constructions for regular polygons and a table of possible constructions (heptagons are not constructable as 7 is a prime number but not a Fermat prime). This nice page includes two constructions for the 17 side regular polygon (heptakaidecagon) and one for a pentagon.
  • Mathworld page on ruler and compass constructions with nice diagrams
  • Crop circle patterns reduced to ruler and compass This page details a number of standard constructions and how to overlap them to make a ‘crop circle’. A lot of people think that crop circle patterns are too complex to be made overnight by Maths undergraduates with a plank, some rope, a few stout pegs, and a water bottle full of Jim Beam. Me?, I’m staying quiet….

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© Content Keith Burnett, 2006. This old school table-based layout was devised to support a Web authoring module. Mind you, it loads quicker than Kubrick in Safari...