Compass Problem
How can you draw an Oval on the paper using a compass ?
Labels: mathemagic, outside-the-box, thinktank
posted by ToM at
10:12 PM
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
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15 Comments:
May be your compass has oval shape,
just draw it out with a pensil.
bend the paper up a bit so it looks like a hill in the middle so when u use your compass and go up the paper it will go out a bit then when it goes down it sould go in a bit again do this until it goes all the way around and it should be an oval
(this is a guess i havnt actully tested it so if you want to test it and it doesnt work please tell me)
Use the compass to draw 2 circles side by side...then draw tangent lines from the top of one to the top of the other and the same at the bottom.
Lay the paper on a cylinder.
For example, place the paper on a coffee can, then use the compass to draw a circle on the paper. When you lay the paper out flat again, the "circle" will be an oval.
you hold the compass still and just move the paper to form an oval?
Draw a circle and then angle the paper away from you. You will see an oval.
Side note: Unless you are looking directly at the circle at an exact 90 degree angle, all circles are ellipses.
Draw a circle with the compass
Without adjusting the size of the compass place the point on the edge of the circle.
Swing the compass to the left and where it intersects the circle make a tick mark. Leaving the point in place swing to the right and do the same.
Now take the compass and place it on the left tick mark and swing it so it crosses both sides of the circle. Move the compass to the right tick mark and do the same. Two thing will be apparent, first you will see an oval, second by drawing a straight line thru both intersecting points you will divide the circle in half.
Charlie
very carefully
You don't use the kind of compass that draws circles, but the kind that gives you the direction (North, South, ect), that is shaped like an oval
Definition of oval (ellipse): The sums of the distances from the foci to any point on an ellipse is constant.
So, technically a circle is an oval with the foci on top of one another.
This means draw a circle, and you also have your oval.
I guess every circle is an oval.
But a special oval with the Foci points at identical location, would be called circle.
The easy answer would be that you use the pencil in the compass. The question says nothing about the point on the compass, and the tag on the riddle is "outside the box", so I am inclined to think the simplest answer is the right one.
All you do is Start drawing a circle, then you start sliding the pencil outward. Then slide it inward
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