I'm Stuck—In A Curve!

Geometry Level 1

Is it possible to find the vertices of infinitely many right triangles on any Jordan curve?

Two right triangles in a Jordan curve Two right triangles in a Jordan curve


Bonus: What about equilateral triangles?

Yes No Has not yet been proven

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2 solutions

The main thing about a right angle triangle is the 90 degree angle

So for example we take a random point on curve, and place a L shape on it. If we extend the L, we get our right angle triangle. Then we can rotate the L degree by degree and find more triangles.

Since each Jordan curve is all encompassing( goes one whole loop) and does not intersect with itself, half of the rotations of the L always result in right angle triangles, as the other half of the time, the L points to the exterior of the curve.

Hence, simply it is clear that all the points of the curve are vertices of right angle triangles.

ALT: from this Each curve can be made from lines, and each line is part of a right angle triangle as shown. The link shows making the curve from exterior but, is also possible to do from interior. Hence, proven.

What exactly do you mean by "place an L L shape on it"? Jordan curves can be strange creatures, so, we cannot rely on our intuition here.

Otto Bretscher - 2 years, 6 months ago

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place an actual L on each point. Place the point of intersection of the 2 lines in the letter L on each point of the curve to be exact. Thanks for the clarification

Aravind Narayanan - 2 years, 6 months ago

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I'm still a bit confused: Will the right angle of your "L" be at the "random point"?

Otto Bretscher - 2 years, 6 months ago
Johanan Paul
Jan 6, 2019

We can pick a point A on the curve and draw a straight line into the interior until we hit another point on the curve, which we'll call point B. From point B, we can draw a line perpendicular to the original line in the interior until we hit another point on the curve; call this point C. ABC form a right angle triangle, since there is has a right angle. We are guaranteed to find any three points because the curve is closed and non-intersecting. The starting point A is arbitrary – therefore there are infinite such triangles.

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