Circles, Tangents, and Heptagon Diagonals

Two circles are centered at intersection points of diagonals of a regular hepatgon. It turns out that circles centered at intersection points in regular polygons (particularly interestingly with polygons of odd numbers of sides) can be tangent to many other diagonals of that polygon. Try resizing the circles by dragging the green points. How many diagonals can each circle be tangent to? Ready for more? Check out the nonagon version!

Tags: Heptagon, circles, tangents, diagonals, geometry

N-Gon Approximating a Circle

This n-gon (regular polygon of n sides) has a variable number of sides. Changing the value for n demonstrates very visually how regular polygons of increasing numbers of sides, with the same radius, have a shape that increasingly approaches that of a circle.

Tags: N-gons, circles