Have you ever wondered what the area of a regular triangle inscribed in a circle of radius 1 is?

Well,
I take it a few steps further than that and inscribe an infinite number of circles and triangles within
eachother, and find a formula for the area of all those circles and triangles.

3 3

А4
64

3 3
4

In fact, I took this problem even a bit further and asked what happens if we aren' t inscribing an
infinite number of circles and triangle in one another, but instead inscribing squares in circles, or
pentagons in circles, and so on for all N-gons. (When I say N-gon, I mean regular N-gon.) What
would the sum of all the areas be for any given integer Nt3?

Lets start by considering the case of N = 3. The area of the outside circle is clearly Π. The radius of
the first inner triangle is 1, and thus it's side length is 2 CosA Π6 E = 3 . Then it's area is
I 3M
2
3 3 3
4
= 4
. Then, the area of the circle incribed in that triangle is the apothem of that trian-
making the are of the circle ΠI 12 M = Π4 . Now, the side length of the triangle inside
1 2
gle, which is 2
,

that circle is 1
2
CosA Π6 E = 4
3
, making the area of the triangle 3
64
3
.

Now, this is going to get annoying. We have to find the area of the triangle inside that circle, and
2 Inscribing Stuff.nb

Lets start by considering the case of N = 3. The area of the outside circle is clearly Π. The radius of
the first inner triangle is 1, and thus it's side length is 2 CosA Π6 E = 3 . Then it's area is
I 3M
2
3 3 3
4
= 4
. Then, the area of the circle incribed in that triangle is the apothem of that trian-
making the are of the circle ΠI 12 M = Π4 . Now, the side length of the triangle inside
1 2
gle, which is 2
,

that circle is 1
2
CosA Π6 E = 4
3
, making the area of the triangle 3
64
3
.

Now, this is going to get annoying. We have to find the area of the triangle inside that circle, and
the circle inside that triangle, and so on to infinity; we certainly don't want to do that. So, all we
have to do is notice that the radius of the circle is decreasing geometrically with a ratio of 1/4,
while the area of the triangles is decreasing with ratio 1/16. We can seperate the sum of the areas of
all the triangles and all of the circles into two summations: one summing the circles and one sum-
ming the triangles. Then

A = Area of Triangles + Area of Circles

A = Π Ú¥
i=0
1
4i
+ 3
4
3
Ú¥
i=0
1
4i

4Π
A= 3
+ 3

Now, what does the general case look like? With a little intuition you can probably convince your-
self squares and circles, pentagons and circles and so on will behave similarly- it turns out they too
give us geometric series when summing their areas. So what does the formula look like?

We'll approach this by creating two functions: one which determines the area of an N-gon
inscribed in a circle of radius x, and one that gives us the area of a circle inscribed inside an N-gon
of radius x. (The radius of an N-gon The first function we'll call uHxL, and the second vHxL.
 Inscribing Stuff.nb 3

Π
N

r = xu

a = xv

What is uHxL? The area of an N-gon with side length s is the sum of N triangles we can draw within
the N-gon- imagine each slice of a grapefruit as one of these triangles. The area of each is
as
2
, where a is the length of the apothem and s is the side length of the triangle. If we cut this triangle
in half, we are left with two congruent right triangles, each with the same height a and side length
s 360 ° Π
. The angle between the apothem and the hypotenuse of the triangle is equal to = , and
thus SinA NΠ E = where x is the radius of the circle. Then s = 2 x SinA NΠ E while the apothem
2 2N N
s
,
a = x CosA NΠ E. Then the area of the entire N-gon is = uHxL = x 2 SinA NΠ E CosA NΠ E.
2x
Nas
2

Now finding vHxL is easy: all we have to do is find the apothem of an N-gon with radius x. The
relationship is very similar, as we have x CosA NΠ E = a, and thus vHxL = Π x 2 Cos2 A NΠ E.

So, how are we supposed to apply these formulas? Let's begin with a unit circle, which clearly has
area Π. Then, the area of the inscribed N-gon is uH1L = CosA NΠ E SinA NΠ E. This N-gon has radius 1 as
well, so vH1L = Π Cos2 A NΠ E. Then area of the new N-gon is u HCos@Π  NDL = Cos3 A NΠ E SinA NΠ E, and
the area of the circle in that N-gon is vICosA NΠ EM = Π Cos4 A NΠ E. The pattern continues in this man-
ner, giving us two geometric sequences each with ratio Cos2 A NΠ E. The sum of those two sequences
give us the two series
 2
, where a is the length of the apothem and s is the side length of the triangle. If we cut this triangle
in half, we are left with two congruent right triangles, each with the same height a and side length
4s 360 ° Π
. Inscribing
The angle Stuff.nb
between the apothem and the hypotenuse of the triangle is equal to = , and
thus SinA NΠ E = where x is the radius of the circle. Then s = 2 x SinA NΠ E while the apothem
2 2N N
s
,
a = x CosA NΠ E. Then the area of the entire N-gon is = uHxL = x 2 SinA NΠ E CosA NΠ E.
2x
Nas
2

Now finding vHxL is easy: all we have to do is find the apothem of an N-gon with radius x. The
relationship is very similar, as we have x CosA NΠ E = a, and thus vHxL = Π x 2 Cos2 A NΠ E.

So, how are we supposed to apply these formulas? Let's begin with a unit circle, which clearly has
area Π. Then, the area of the inscribed N-gon is uH1L = CosA NΠ E SinA NΠ E. This N-gon has radius 1 as
well, so vH1L = Π Cos2 A NΠ E. Then area of the new N-gon is u HCos@Π  NDL = Cos3 A NΠ E SinA NΠ E, and
the area of the circle in that N-gon is vICosA NΠ EM = Π Cos4 A NΠ E. The pattern continues in this man-
ner, giving us two geometric sequences each with ratio Cos2 A NΠ E. The sum of those two sequences
give us the two series

ATotal = Π âCos2 k B F + N SinB F CosB F âCos2 k B F

¥ Π Π Π ¥ Π

k=0
N N N k=0
N

F CosB F âCos2 k B F
Π Π ¥ Π
ATotal = Π + N SinB
N N k=0
N

F CosB F
Π Π 1

1 - Cos2 A E
ATotal = Π + N SinB
Π
N N
N

ATotal = Csc2 B F Π + N SinB F CosB F = Π Csc2 B F + N CotB F

Π Π Π Π Π
N N N N N

And we have our formula for the sum of all the N-gons and triangles. As a quick exploration, we
might look at how these vary, considering each of the two seperately (as one sums all the circles,
one all the N-gons).
A@x_D := Pi Csc@Pi  xD ^ 2
B@x_D := x Cot@Pi  xD
Plot@8A@xD + B@xD, A@xD, B@xD<, 8x, 2, 10<, PlotStyle ® 8Purple, Red, Blue<, PlotLabel ®
"Purple = Total Area, Blue = Area of Circles, Red = Area of N-gons", PlotRange ® 80, 50<D

Purple = Total Area, Blue = Area of Circles, Red = Area of N-gons

50

40

30

20

10

2 4 6 8 10

Note that as N®¥, we have that the area of the N-gons is equal to the area of the circles:

Lim N SinA NΠ E CosA NΠ E = Lim Cos@ΘD Sin@ΘD

Θ = Π * 1 * Lim Sin@ΘD
Θ
=Π
N®¥ Θ®0 Π Θ®0
 Inscribing Stuff.nb 5

Note that as N®¥, we have that the area of the N-gons is equal to the area of the circles:

Lim N SinA NΠ E CosA NΠ E = Lim Cos@ΘD Sin@ΘD

Θ = Π * 1 * Lim Sin@ΘD
Θ
=Π
N®¥ Θ®0 Π Θ®0

Which we expect, since geometrically the limit of a regular N-gon is a circle as N®¥.

Next, I took the circle out of the problem entirely and just inscribed N-gons in themselves repeat-
edly, obtaining a formula for the sum of the areas of all the resulting N-gons. This problem is a
little simpler, as going from one N-gon to the next is simply taking the apothem of the big N-gon
and making it the radius of the new N-gon. If you can't see why, it's because the vertices of an N-
gon inscribed in an N-gon are the midpoints of the larger N-gon's sides. Thus, if the formula for
the area of an N-gon is N2a s , where s = 2 a TanA NΠ E ® Area = a 2 N, all we have to do is find a
formula for the i th apothem and sum over all of them to get the total area.

We'll let the initial radius equal r- the apothem, then, is simply a = r CosA NΠ E. Letting
r = 1, we have the formula for the sum of all the areas :

ATotal = N âCos2 k B F = N Csc2 B F

¥ Π Π

k=0
N N

What I haven't done with this idea is try inscribing any N-gon in any M-gon, then inscribing an N-
gon in that M-gon and repeating the process infinitely- that's because it's difficult to say generally
how an M-gon looks when it's inscribed in an N-gon. As well, I might try looking at the problem in
3D, though I would only have the 5 platonic solids to work with.

My final geometric interest is unrelated to the first two, though it sounds similiar and is of similar
difficulty: if you have three cotangent unit circles, what are the radii of the circle inscribed in the
middle of all three, and the one that inscribes all three? In general, how do the radii look given N
unit circles, each of which is tangent to two others?

First, it may be difficult to see how what the general case looks like. So, I've drawn the first two
cases, so it might be easier to see the pattern.
6 Inscribing Stuff.nb

Π
N
r+1

You get the idea. We are then left with two relationships. The first relates the two radii in question:
the inner radius, r, is equal to the outer radius, R less the diameter of one of the unit circles (which
is 2). Thus, we have r + 2 = R. The second relationship gives us the value of r. Consider the right
triangle shown above, which has as it's vertices the center of one unit circle, the center of the inner
circle, and the intersection of the mentioned unit circle and one of it's neighbors. Given the angle
shown in the diagram, we have that SinA NΠ E = r+1 1
® r = CscA NΠ E - 1, and thus R = CscA NΠ E + 1.