Tag Archives: Geometric construction

Bhāskara-II’s polygons and an algebraic approximation for sines of pi by x

Unlike the Greeks, the Hindus were not particularly obsessed with constructions involving just a compass and a straightedge. Nevertheless, their pre-modern architecture and yantra-s from the tāntrika tradition indicate that they routinely constructed various regular polygons inscribed in circles. Of … Continue reading

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A sampler of Ramanujan’s elementary results and their manifold ramifications

As we have remarked before, Ramanujan seemed as if channeling the world-conquering strides of Viṣṇu, when he single-handedly bridged the lacuna in Hindu mathematics from the days of the brāhmaṇa-s of the Cerapada to the modern era. Starting around the … Continue reading

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A catalog of attractors, repellors, cycles, and other oscillations of some common functional iterates

One of the reasons we became interested in functional iterates was from seeking an analogy for the effect of selective pressure on the mean values of a measurable biological trait in a population. Let us consider a biological trait under … Continue reading

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Some observations on the Lekkerkerker-Zeckendorf decomposition of integers

In our youth, we learned of a nice arithmetic theorem of Lekkerkerker (more popularly known after Zeckendorf; hereinafter L-Z) that relates to the famous Mātrā-meru sequence : 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8… defined by the recurrence relationship . … Continue reading

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Relationships between incircles of the “equilateral triangles in a square” system

This note relates to geometric relationships that may be likened to the Japanese temple-tablet problems. The inspiration for discovering and exploring it came from an origami construction presented by the pioneer in that field, Sundara Rao of Kumbhaghoṇa, in the … Continue reading

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Some biographical reflections on visualizing irrationals

In our childhood, our father informed us that, though the school told us that , it was not valid. However, he added that for “small fractions” [Footnote 1] it was a great approximation. Moreover, the numerical problems, which we would … Continue reading

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Turagapadādi

This note stems from a recent conversation with a friend, where he pointed out that the graph representing all possible positions the horse (knight) can take on the chessboard from a given starting square produces interesting graphs. It struck us … Continue reading

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The shape of dinosaur eggs

Readers of these pages will know that we have a special interest in the geometry of ovals. One of the long-standing problems in this regard is: what is the curve that best describes the shape of a dinosaurian egg? While … Continue reading

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Generating simple radially symmetric art

Many people experience beauty in structures with bilateral, radial and rotational symmetries with or without recursion. The recursive or nested structure are the foundation of the beauty in fractal form, the generation of which has become increasingly easy for the … Continue reading

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Johannes Germanus Regiomontanus and his rod

Even before we had become acquainted with the trigonometric sum and difference formulae or calculus are father had pointed to us that there was an optimal point at which one should stand to observe or photograph features on vertical structures, … Continue reading

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Bhāskara’s dual square indeterminate equations

PDF for convenient reading Figure 1. Sum and difference of squares amounting to near squares. In course of our exploration of the bhūjā-koṭi-karṇa-nyāya in our early youth we had observed that there are examples of “near misses”: . Hence, we … Continue reading

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Conic conquests: biographical and historical

PDF file of same article Studying mathematics with our father was not exactly an easy-going experience; nevertheless, it was the source of many a spark that inspired fruitful explorations and life-lessons. We recount one such thread here, and reflect on … Continue reading

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Rāsabha-nyāya-śikṣā

Vrishchika had been seeing several kids of patients affected by the chemical leak that had happened sometime ago. While she saw some purely for routine clinical practice, she was also particularly interested in the several cases exhibiting heterotaxy and had … Continue reading

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The blue bottle and the talent show

This story itself is haunted. The deaths Seeing Vidrum intently gaze at something on his phone with an expression of near disbelief Kalakausha asked: “Vidrum, what are you looking at? We need to be leaving shortly. We have to buy … Continue reading

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The minimal triangle circumscribing a semicircle

Consider a fixed semicircle with center at and radius . Let be the isosceles triangle which circumscribes it (Figure 1). Figure 1 What will be the characteristics of the minimal form of the said triangle, i.e. triangle with minimum perimeter, … Continue reading

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Nārāyaṇa’s sequence, Mādhava’s series and pi

The coin-toss problem and Nārāyaṇa’s sequence If you toss a fair coin times how many of the possible result-sequences of tosses will not have a successive run of 3 or more Heads? The same can be phrased as given tosses … Continue reading

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The Platonic culmination of Euclid and the pentagon-hexagon-decagon identity

Why did great sage Pāṇini compose the Aṣṭādhyāyī? There were probably multiple reasons but often you hear people say that he wanted to give a complete description of the Sanskrit language. That was probably one of his reasons but was … Continue reading

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The mean hyperbola and other mean functions

Let be two numbers such that, We use to construct a specific rectangular hyperbola using one of the following methods: Method-I (Figure 1: this is based on an approach we described earlier) Figure 1 1) Mark point , which will … Continue reading

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The hearts and the intrinsic Cassinian curve of an ellipse

Introduction This investigation began with our exploration of pedal curves during the vacation following our university entrance exams in the days of our youth. It led to us discovering for ourselves certain interesting heart-shaped curves, which are distinct from the … Continue reading

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The mathematics class

It was a dreary autumn day, the same year Lootika had joined their school. The apabhraṃśa class had just gotten over. Somakhya’s head was spinning with all the confusing genders of the vulgar apabhraṃśa that was dealt with in the … Continue reading

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Triangles, Hexes and Cubes

One philosophical question which we have often ponder about is: Are numbers “real”? One way to approach this question is via figurate numbers, where numbers directly manifest as very tangible geometry. This idea has deep roots in our tradition: as … Continue reading

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Citrabhānu’s cubes

The Hindus unlike their yavana cousins preferred algebra to geometry. Yet on occasions they could indulge in geometric games for demostrating proofs of algebraic relations. We see a bit of this in the Āryabhaṭa school and the great Bhāskara-II, but … Continue reading

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Hofstadter and Nārāyaṇa: connections across space and time

The scientist-philosopher Douglas Hofstadter presents an interesting single-seeded sequence H in his book ‘Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid’. It is generated by the recurrence relation, where …(1) Working it out one can see that it takes the form: … Continue reading

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Median and pedal triangles and derived fractals: an introductory account

It is rather easily seen that joining the midpoints of the sides of a triangle yields four congruent triangles that in turn are similar to the original triangle (Figure 1). This figure might be used to provided a self-evident geometric … Continue reading

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Means and conics

By the time one reaches high school one learns that: (i) there are four means that one might find some use of in life (I know there are more though they are hardly used) – the arithmetic mean which is … Continue reading

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Leaves from the scrapbook-2

As described here these entries are from the scrapbook of Somakhya. Entry 11; Arasa, year Pramādin of the first cycle: It was our first day at Kshayadrajanagara. I had exhausted all that was there to talk with my cousins Mandara … Continue reading

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Cobwebs on the golden hyperbola and parabola

The material presented here is rather trivial to those who have spent even a small time looking at chaotic systems. Nevertheless, we found it instructive when we first discovered it for ourselves while studying conics. Hence, as part of recording … Continue reading

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bhujā-koṭi-karṇa-nyāyaḥ koṭijyā-nyāyaś ca

bhujā-koṭi-karṇa-nyāyaḥ koṭijyā-nyāyaḥ

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The two squares theorem

I do not know who might have discovered this simple relationship first. I stumbled upon it while drawing figures in the notebook during a seminar. Take any two squares such that they are joined at one side and the two … Continue reading

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Constructing a regular heptagon with hyperbola and parabola

There is little doubt that Archimedes was one of the greatest yavana intellectuals. He would also figure in any list of the greatest mathematician-scientists of all times. His work on the construction of a regular heptagon has not survived the … Continue reading

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Infinite bisections required for trisection of an angle

Figure 1: Self-evident demonstration of Figure 2: Application of the same as serial bisections to trisect the angle. In the example chosen here we have . In ten steps we get to which is a pretty close, though in principle … Continue reading

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Doubling the cube with ellipses

The problem of doubling of the cube which emerged in the context of the doubling of the cubical altar of the great god Apollo cannot be solved using just a straight-edge and a compass. It needs one to construct a … Continue reading

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The magic of the deva-ogdoad

Classical Hindu tradition holds that the ogdoad of deva-s corresponding to their directions is: Indra: East; Agni: Southeast; Yama: South; Nirṛti: Southwest; Varuṇa: West; Vāyu: Northwest; Kubera: North; Īśāna: Northeast. The central position might be occupied in certain traditions by … Continue reading

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Euler’s squares

On account of our fascination with the geometry of origami (albeit not well-endowed in mathematical capacity) we discovered for ourselves shortly after our father had taught us trigonometry that, We had earlier shown the origami proof for that. But it … Continue reading

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A strange Soviet construction

in our college days we used to visit the lāl-pustak-bhaṇḍār in our city where Soviet books on science and mathematics were sold at a low price (alongside Marxian literature). They were a great resource that enormously contributed to our intellectual … Continue reading

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Some reminiscences of our study of chaotic maps-1

Starting in our teens, we began our exploration of chaotic (strange) attractors emerging from simple iterative maps, numerical solution of ordinary differential equations and other fractals inspired by the work of Benoit Mandelbrot. It led us in two directions. First, … Continue reading

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Paper folding, Sundara Rao and geometrical constructions

Paper folding, which we shall hereinafter refer to as origami without further discussion on the correctness of the usage, is believed to have had a long history in Japan. Some believe that some primitive form of origami might have been … Continue reading

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Ramanujan’s second construction for the approximate squaring of a circle

To experience the greatness of great men one has to relive or redo some acts of theirs to the best of ones ability. In ones youth such enactments might inspire one to make a bid for greatness. Whether this happens … Continue reading

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Some meanderings among golden stuff-2

Related stuff: Golden Ratio-0 Golden Ratio-1 If the golden ratio can fascinate erudite men of high IQ then what to say of simpletons like us. Hence, we shall here talk about some more trivia in this regard. The golden ratio … Continue reading

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Knotting a string: line, parabola, conchoid and knot

The basic construction In course of studying various methods of constructing conics we stumbled upon a means of using the relationship between uniform circular motion (UCM) and simple harmonic motion (SHM) to construct four distinct loci with common procedure. They … Continue reading

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The Apollonian parabola

Some say that Archimedes and Apollonius of Perga (modern Murtina in Turkey; the center of the great yavana temple of the goddess Artemis in the days of Apollonius) were the two great yavana-s who might have rivaled Karl Gauss or … Continue reading

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Leaves from the scrapbook

There were extensive memoirs in the form of electronic scrapbooks of Somakhya, Lootika and some members of their circle. Those in the know read the available excerpts due to matters of considerable interest being recorded in them. Other parts were … Continue reading

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Some meanderings among golden stuff

There are some angles that we often encounter in the construction of the golden ratio and its use in religious art. The first is the most obvious is the angle which is the angle made by the diagonals connecting a … Continue reading

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A golden construction

Anyone with even a small fancy for geometrical matters would have at some point in their lives played with the golden ratio (). Indeed, we too have had our share of fun and games with the golden ratio. In course … Continue reading

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The first three squareable Lunes

For the sake of some readers we shall first define a lune: A lune is a concave closed region bounded by two circular arcs respectively with radii and and distance between their centers as , where . This region looks … Continue reading

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The salinon

The yavana Archimedes or some later commentator of his among the Neo-Platonists of Harran described a figure they called the salinon, which was supposed to mean a “salt-cellar”. This material was acquired by the Mohammedans from those Neo-Platonists from whom … Continue reading

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van Aubel’s theorem

The van Aubel’s theorem is a simple theorem which is comparable to the theorem attributed to the French conqueror Napoleon Bonaparte regarding triangles. It is easy to prove once you know the upāya, even as the yogin-s would say ānanda … Continue reading

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Ovals, drops, tops, eights, pears and the like

Ovals, drops, tops, eights, pears and the like This piece may be seen as a continuation of the earlier one on our journey through the world of ovals. As it needed a lot of figures and some mathematical notation it … Continue reading

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The astroid, the deltoid and the fish within the fish

As this article needed a lot of figures with some mathematical notation it is being presented as a PDF file: The astroid, the deltoid and the fish within the fish

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A biographical journey from conics to ovals

As this article needed a lot of figures with some mathematical notation it is being presented as a PDF file: A biographical journey from conics to ovals This may be read a continuation of earlier notes such as: Ovals, drops, tops … Continue reading

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Iamblichus, quadratures, trisections and the lacuna of the cycloid

Today Syria has been turned into a hellhole by the unmāda-traya. However, just before the irruption of the second Abrahamism which ended the late Classical world, it was home to great men like Iamblichus. Hailing from a clan of priest-chiefs, … Continue reading

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The cardioid and the arbelos: the scimitar and the axe

The arbelos of Archimedes, an object most wondrous; it brought pleasure to us, when stalked by enemies, as the old yavana by Romans, who ended for good his days. What is the mystery of the scimitar and the axe which … Continue reading

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Idiosyncratic synesthetic experiences in some trivial trigonometric identities

Mathematical objects, despite existing in a purely abstract “Platonic” realm, have the ability (perhaps by the very virtue of their Platonic idealism) to produce synesthetic experiences. We have often wondered in our life as to why the realization or experience … Continue reading

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Squaring of the circle by Srinivasa Ramanujan

Geometric constructions have a special effect on us because they depict visually the Platonic abstractions that often underlie the laws of nature. So in a sense a construction is a mapping of natural laws on the canvas of Platonic space. … Continue reading

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Fancies of the parabola and hyperbola

Many revolutions-of-the-sun ago we were seeking a device that could construct a parabola. We made a discovery in this connection that is exceedingly elementary Euclid for mathematicians, but for us it was an insight-giving philosophical revelation. A parabola can be … Continue reading

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