Geometry Puzzles | Azimuth https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2014/01/...

Azimuth

Geometry Puzzles

Here are four puzzles about areas, in approximate order of increasing difficulty.

Mysteries of the equilateral triangle

(http://www.m-hikari.com/mccartin-2.pdf)
Puzzle: Show the area of the orange circle equals the total area of the two blue regions.

In case you’re wondering, the picture above shows an equilateral triangle with a small circle inscribed
in it and a big circle circumscribed around it.

The puzzle is easy if you think about it the right way. I never knew this cool fact until last month,
when I read this fun free book:

• Brian McCartin, Mysteries of the equilateral triangle (http://www.m-hikari.com/mccartin-2.pdf).

I’ve given talks on the numbers 5 (http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/numbers/#5), 8

(http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/numbers/#8), and 24 (http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez
/numbers/#24). I’ve imagined writing a book that had chapters on all my favorite natural numbers,
starting with Chapter 0. But it would be very hard to write Chapter 3, since this number has too many
interesting properties! McCartin’s book covers a lot of them.
1 of 8 13/08/18, 9:15 PM
Geometry Puzzles | Azimuth https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2014/01/...

Square the lune to the tune of Claire de Lune

(https://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/Lune_of_Hippocrates)
Puzzle: Show the crescent has the same area as the triangle.

Greek mathematicians really wanted to square the circle (), by which I mean: use straightedge and
compass to first draw a circle and then construct a square with the same area.

In 440 BC, Hippocrates of Chios figured out how to square the above crescent-shaped region, which
lies between the circle centered at O and the smaller circle centered at D. So, this region is called the
Lune of Hippocrates (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lune_of_Hippocrates).

I’ve heard it said that this result gave some Greek geometers hope that the circle could be squared.
I’m not sure this is true; Hippocrates himself was probably too smart to be fooled. But in any event, it
would have been a false hope. Much later, around 1885, Lindemann and Weierstrass proved that
squaring the circle was impossible.

Any crescent-shaped region formed by two circular arcs is called a lune. It’s widely believed that
there are only 5 squarable lunes. In other words, there are only 5 shapes of lune constructible by
straightedge and compass whose area equals that of a square constructible using straightedge and
compass. (Obviously these lunes can come in many different sizes.)

Hippocrates discovered three squarable lunes. Two more were discovered by Martin Johan Wallenius
in 1766. A proof that these are the only squarable lunes was given by Tchebatorew and Dorodnow,
and summarized by the famous topologist Postnikov:

• M. M. Postnikov, The problem of squarable Lunes, translated from the Russian by Abe Shenitzer,
American Mathematical Monthly (http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2589121?uid=3739560&uid=2&
uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21103281963343), 107 (Aug.-Sep. 2000), 645–651.

However, there may be a loophole in this proof: Will Jagy claims (http://mathoverflow.net/a/151566
/2893) that these Russians assumed without proof that the ratio of two angles involved in the
construction of the lune is rational. With this assumption, finding a squarable lune amounts to
finding a rational number and a constructible number (https://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/Constructible_number)
2 of 8 such that 13/08/18, 9:15 PM
Geometry Puzzles | Azimuth https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2014/01/...

Puzzle: Why should be rational? Do you know the true state of the art here?

(My puzzles include hard questions I don’t know the answer to, and this is one.)

For a nice discussion of the 5 squarable lunes, with pictures, see this page:

• The five squarable lunes (http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath171/kmath171.htm),

MathPages.

Twice in a blue lune

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lune_of_Hippocrates)
Puzzle: Show the area of this right triangle equals the total area inside the blue lunes. The outside of
each lune is a semicircle. The inside of each lune is part of the circle containing the points A, B, and C.

The circle through all 3 corners of a triangle is called its circumcircle. You can construct the
circumcircle using a straightedge and compass (http://www.mathopenref.com
/constcircumcircle.html), if you want.

Again this is a famous old problem. The two blue lunes here are called the Lunes of Alhazen. This
problem was later posed and solve by Leonardo da Vinci!

This puzzle is a lot of fun, so I urge you not to give up—but if you do, you can see da Vinci’s solution
here (http://www.hypatiamaze.org/davinci/leo_lune2.html).

The arbelos

(http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arbelos-
3 of 8 tikz.svg) 13/08/18, 9:15 PM
Geometry Puzzles | Azimuth https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2014/01/...
Puzzle: show the area of the green shape equals the area of the circle.

The green shape is called an arbelos, which means ‘shoemaker’s knife’ in Greek, since it looks a bit
like that. It shows up in Propositions 4-8 of the Book of Lemmas (https://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/Book_of_Lemmas). This book goes back at least to Thābit ibn Qurra (https://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/Th%C4%81bit_ibn_Qurra), a mathematician, astronomer and physician who live in Baghdad
from 826 to 901 AD. Ibn Qurra said the book was written by Archimedes! But nobody is sure.

So, when you do this puzzle, you may be matching wits with Archimedes. But you’ll certainly be
sharing some thoughts with Thābit ibn Qurra.

Math has been called the world’s longest conversation. Perhaps this is an exaggeration: people have
been passing on stories for a long time. But Babylonians were computing the square root of two back
in 1700 BC, probably using techniques that are still interesting today… so it really is remarkable how
old mathematics still makes good sense, unlike the old creation myths.

For more on the arbelos try:

• Arbelos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbelos), Wikipedia.

and

• Thomas Schoch, Arbelos references (http://www.retas.de/thomas/arbelos/references.html), 2013.

For the 15 propositions in the Book of Lemmas, see:

• Book of Lemmas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Lemmas), Wikipedia.

Two semicircles is half a circle

(http://www.cut-the-knot.org/proofs/Semicircles.shtml)
Puzzle: show the total area of the two semicircles is half the area of the large circle.

Amazingly, it seems this fact was noticed only in 2011:

4 of 8
• Andrew 13/08/18,
K. Jobbings, Two semicircles fill half a circle, The Mathematical Gazette 95 (Nov. 2011), 9:15 PM
Geometry Puzzles | Azimuth https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2014/01/...
538–540.

However, Andrew Jobbings is a genius when it comes to ‘recreational mathematics’. For more of his
work, check out this page:

• Andrew Jobbings, Arbelos (http://www.arbelos.co.uk/papers.html).

I learned about this puzzle from Alexander Bogomolny, who has a wonderful website full of
Javascript geometry demonstrations:

• Alexander Bogomolny, A property of semicircles (http://www.cut-the-knot.org/proofs

/Semicircles.shtml).

You’ll get a scary warning asking “Do you want to run this application?” Say yes. You’ll get an applet
that lets you slide the point where the semicircles touch: no matter where it is, the semicircles have
the same total area! Click “hint” and you’ll get a hint. If you’re still stuck, and too impatient to solve
the puzzle yourself, scroll down and see a proof!

However, that proof is long and confusing. With geometry I like demonstrations where after some
thought you can simply see that the result is true. For this puzzle, such a demonstration was provided
by Greg Egan.

Click here (http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/mathematical/semicircle_puzzle_egan.gif) if you give

up on this puzzle and want to see Egan’s solution. You may need to ponder it a bit, but when you’re
done you should say “yes, this result is clear!”

As a separate hint: the answers to this puzzle and the previous one are similar, in a very nice way!

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 12th, 2014 at 10:48 am and is filed under mathematics,
puzzles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a
response, or trackback from your own site.

17 Responses to Geometry Puzzles

Todd Trimble says:

12 January, 2014 at 11:37 pm
(Rot 13) Sbe gur svefg chmmyr: nethr gung gur enqvhf bs gur fznyy pvepyr zhfg or unys gur
enqvhf bs gur ynetr pvepyr, naq abgvpr gurer ner guerr ertvbaf pbatehrag gb gur oyhr ertvba.
Sbe gur frpbaq: hfr gur snpg gung gur nern vafvqr gur fznyy frzvpvepyr vf unys bs gung bs gur
ynetr frzvpvepyr.

Reply
Jonathan Fowler says:
6 June, 2017 at 2:00 pm
To read Todd’s encrypted spoilers, shift each letter by 13. (‘s’->’f’). I hope Todd doesn’t mind
me pointing this out, but if people are are needing help with the puzzles, then they might also
need help with this.

Reply
Todd Trimble says:
5 of 8 7 June, 2017 at 1:21 pm 13/08/18, 9:15 PM
Geometry Puzzles | Azimuth https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2014/01/...
Don’t mind at all. When I tried clicking on my link to rot-13 (“rotate by 13”), it seemed to
be broken (it used to be there, where you could just enter the text into a box and it would
decode it for you). But the site is still there, so let me try again: rot-13.

Reply
Todd Trimble says:
12 January, 2014 at 11:43 pm
(Rot 13) Sbe gur guveq chmmyr: guvf vf n qvfthvfrq irefvba bs gur Clguntberna gurberz, jurer gur
nern vafvqr gur ynetr frzvpvepyr (jvgu qvnzrgre tvira ol gur ulcbgrahfr) vf rdhny gb gur fhzf bs
gur nernf vafvqr gur fznyy frzvpvepyrf (jvgu qvnzrgref tvira ol gur yrtf bs gur evtug gevnatyr —
abgvpr guvf vf va snpg n evtug gevnatyr!).

Reply
Todd Trimble says:
13 January, 2014 at 1:08 am
Oh, I’ve just clicked on Greg’s solution! Yes, that’s where I wanted to relocate the yellow
semicircle all right — but I hadn’t seen the little folding maneuver quite so clearly as that. Very
nice, Greg!

Reply
Buddha Buck says:
13 January, 2014 at 4:35 am
I had seen these when you posted them on Google+, but I must have missed the “Twice in a blue
lune” one. It didn’t take me long to see the solution. Mine is basically the same as Todd’s.

Reply
John Baez says:
13 January, 2014 at 4:36 pm
‘Twice in a blue lune’ is a new one, to make this article worth a look even if you’d seen the
puzzles I posted on Google+. Now I’m going to post that one to Google+.

Reply
Greg Egan says:
13 January, 2014 at 12:27 pm
These puzzles are great fun. Next time I visit a friend of mine who’s a painter I’ll have to show
him the Lunes of Alhazen and challenge him to match da Vinci!

Reply
JhM says:
13 January, 2014 at 2:35 pm
I am a bit disapointed. To my mind synthetic geometry was (is) the high water mark of
mathematical reasoning. I see algebra as a cheap, inconsistent (symbols differ from one text to the
other) means of arriving at a solution which is oft times only half correct (the quadratic formula,
for example). You guys need to read anything and everything written by Sir Thomas Heath.

Reply
Todd Trimble says:
13 January, 2014 at 5:30 pm
Well, perhaps you could take this opportunity to show us how to do it right. Then again, I
don’t know what exactly it is that you’re criticizing. What algebra are you referring to here?

Reply
6 of 8semasiographologist says: 13/08/18, 9:15 PM
Geometry Puzzles | Azimuth https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2014/01/...
17 January, 2014 at 7:12 pm
Reminds me of Sangaku; native Japanese mathematics.
http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~trothman/templegeometry.pdf

Reply
@whut says:
7 June, 2017 at 4:38 pm

I have a generic question. Has anyone encountered solutions to 2D problems that have this
formulation ?

f(x)=sin(k sin(x))

And if so, does this formulation have a name?

Reply
John Baez says:
9 June, 2017 at 10:44 am
Bessel functions are used to describe the standing waves for an oscillating disk:

and they’re integrals of a function similar to yours, though not exactly the same:

Of course that complex exponential has imaginary part

and if we use the formula for the expression makes its appearance, multiplied by some other
stuff.

Reply
@whut says:
9 June, 2017 at 6:34 pm
Thanks John, that helps a lot.

BTW, that Bessel function also shows up in Frequency Modulation applications, as in FM

radio

I found the same StackExchange question and added it there:

https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/704904/what-does-sin-sinx-mean/2316372

Those guys are kind of grumpy so I will see if it passes moderation.

Reply
@whut says:
9 June, 2017 at 6:37 pm
That formula parsed on StackExchange, is it the ending ellipsis ?

John Baez says:

10 June, 2017 at 6:55 am
It was the ellipsis. Three periods works fine, and \dots is more classy, but you entered
some sort of UNICODE ellipsis character.

@whut says:
10 June, 2017 at 2:07 pm
I also have a derivation of a standing wave equation different than yours that reduces to
sin(sin). I think the physical significance of the behavior is that with the classical wave
7 of 8 13/08/18, 9:15 PM
equation, increasing the forcing energy to the system results in an increasing amplitude
Geometry Puzzles | Azimuth https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2014/01/...
of the sinusoid. But with a different formulation, increasing the amplitude results in
frequency folding and so the extra energy goes into higher frequency harmonics.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Blog at WordPress.com.

8 of 8 13/08/18, 9:15 PM