Constructing A Kepler Triangle
A Kepler triangle can be constructed with only straightedge and compass by first creating a golden rectangle:
- Construct a simple square
- Draw a line from the midpoint of one side of the square to an opposite corner
- Use that line as the radius to draw an arc that defines the height of the rectangle
- Complete the golden rectangle
- Use the longer side of the golden rectangle to draw an arc that intersects the opposite side of the rectangle and defines the hypotenuse of the Kepler triangle
Kepler constructed it differently. In a letter to his former professor Michael Mästlin, he wrote, "If on a line which is divided in extreme and mean ratio one constructs a right angled triangle, such that the right angle is on the perpendicular put at the section point, then the smaller leg will equal the larger segment of the divided line."
Read more about this topic: Kepler Triangle
Famous quotes containing the word constructing:
“The very hope of experimental philosophy, its expectation of constructing the sciences into a true philosophy of nature, is based on induction, or, if you please, the a priori presumption, that physical causation is universal; that the constitution of nature is written in its actual manifestations, and needs only to be deciphered by experimental and inductive research; that it is not a latent invisible writing, to be brought out by the magic of mental anticipation or metaphysical mediation.”
—Chauncey Wright (1830–1875)