Series

Projectivescale — the series

2 essays on one idea, from the one that introduces it to the one that assumes the rest.
  1. 1correct from 19 cm, at 160 mm wide46° across

    Seven is not a power of two

    Halving a receding depth by diagonals is exact, and every book gives it. Halving reaches a half, a quarter, three eighths — and never a third, however many times it is spent, because no power of two is divisible by three. There is a construction that reaches every whole fraction, it costs three lines rather than a stack of quadrangles, and the extra ingredient is not a measurement.

    part 4 · construction
  2. 00the third mark, at infinity0 … 12 marks in the unit intervalcorrect from 19 cm, at 160 mm widerank 1 · 3e-15 from the exact rationals

    What a straightedge reaches on a receding line

    Three marks on a receding line fix a coordinate, and everything a straightedge builds from them is a ratio of whole numbers. Three complete quadrangles put 1655 marks on the unit interval with no gap above 0.0038, a third costs two quadrangles where repeated halving never reaches one at all, and the same net built on a line that does not recede arrives at the identical 30 coordinates.

    part 5 · construction

All series