Categories
Advanced

Circle dancing

Start with a blue triangle, and form the green triangle whose vertices bisect each circular arc connecting blue vertices. Similarly, make the red triangle from the green, and the orange triangle from the red. Prove the triangle becomes equilateral in the limit.

Scroll down for a solution to this problem.

Solution

Name the angles in the triangle a, b and c. Then the first iteration is stepping to (b+c)/2, (c+a)/2 and (a+b)/2. But b+c = 180-a. So iteration is really just  x -> 90 -(x/2).  Or equivalently 60-x -> (60-x)/2. So every angle converges to 60.

🤞 Don’t miss these puzzles!

Subscribe to the weekly geometry puzzle e-mail.

One reply on “Circle dancing”

Leave a Reply to Marshall Buck Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Optionally add an image (JPEG only)