Holditch's Ellipse Unveiled

Author(s): Juan Monterde and David Rochera

Source: The American Mathematical Monthly , Vol. 124, No. 5 (May 2017), pp. 403-421
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Mathematical Association of America
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.4169/amer.math.monthly.124.5.403

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 Holditch’s Ellipse Unveiled
Juan Monterde and David Rochera

Abstract. In plane geometry, Holditch’s theorem states that if a chord of fixed length is
allowed to rotate inside a convex closed curve, then the locus of a point on the chord a distance
p from one end and a distance q from the other is a closed curve whose area is less than that
of the original curve by π pq. In this article we obtain, first, sufficient conditions to ensure
the existence of the Holditch curve and, second, a version of Holditch’s theorem for convex
polygons where the ellipse involved is explicitly shown.

1. INTRODUCTION. Let a chord of fixed length be allowed to rotate inside a con-

vex closed curve C . A point on the chord a distance p from one end and a distance
q from the other will describe an inner closed curve C1 . Holditch’s theorem [4] states
that the area of the gap between the curves C and C1 is the same as the area π pq of an
ellipse with semiaxes p and q, regardless of both the shape and the size of the original
curve.

q
C p
C1

πpq

Figure 1. Representation of Holditch’s theorem.

Our interest in this theorem started from the inclusion of this result as one of Clif-
ford Pickover’s 250 milestones in the history of mathematics [5]. In the two pages
of the book devoted to the theorem, the author echoes the question raised by Mark
Cooker in [2]. Namely, the statement refers to an ellipse, but. . . where is it? The proof
of Holditch’s theorem, after adding some necessary hypotheses as can be found in [1],
uses usual techniques from calculus, but no reference appears to any ellipse other than
the fact that the area is π pq.
In this article we will try to address this missing ellipse. The first steps were already
presented in the cited paper [2]: If C1 is a rectangle and the stick is shorter than the
shortest side, then the Holditch curve consists of four similar quarter-ellipses. More-
over, in the same paper it is also said that if the angle between two consecutive sides
is not a right angle, then a part of an ellipse still appears although the semiaxes are no
longer p and q. Our investigation starts by noting that in this case (not a right angle)
http://dx.doi.org/10.4169/amer.math.monthly.124.5.403
MSC: Primary 52A10

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the ellipse is the image formed by a shear transformation of the ellipse with semiaxes
p and q.
The idea is to consider a sequence of convex polygons converging to the convex
closed curve C , and to see what happens with the inner closed curves associated with
each polygon. Thus, the first step is to state and prove the analogous theorem for
convex polygons with sides longer than the chord. In this case we will be able to show
the ellipse explicitly; the region defined by the associated Holditch curve is distributed
in as many disjoint pieces as there are sides of the polygon. Each piece is located at
each corner and it is a deformation through a shear map of a sector of the ellipse with
semiaxes p and q. Each sector is defined by the outer angle at the corner. Since shears
preserve areas and since the sum of the outer angles of a polygon is 2 π, the total area
matches the area of a sector of angle 2 π, which is the whole ellipse.
The second step is to study the case of convex polygons with at least one side shorter
than the chord. Such polygons can be obtained through a process of cutting off corners
from a larger polygon. We study how each piece of the Holditch area from the larger
polygon is transformed into another figure of the same area by cutting off a triangle
on the old corner and distributing its area. In the most general case, this takes the form
p q
of two new attached pieces with the proportions p+q and p+q . Let us call this process
“cutting off a corner.”
Finally, the Holditch area associated with a smooth curve is the result of an infi-
nite number of “cutting off a corner” steps. At each step there is no change of area.
Therefore, the Holditch area is the same as the initial area.
While completing this manuscript we found an interesting paper, [3], written in
Spanish by a civil engineer, where the Holditch curve of a convex polygon related
to the sum of the exterior angles was obtained, while making no reference to shear
transformations. Moreover, many interesting applications of Holditch curves to the real
world are discussed, including regularization of planar curves as a way of designing
railway lines, division of an enclosure into equal parts, lining an irregular excavation,
curve circulation of a guided vehicle, etc.
Although our original aim was to study how the Holditch ellipse appears, we have
started this article with some theoretical results on the existence of Holditch curves.
The first is a curious application of the implicit function theorem. If a chord of length
 can be inscribed in a closed curve and if some geometrical condition holds, then the
Holditch curve exists. As a consequence, we show that this happens for convex curves
and for  that has values lower than a parameter associated with the curve. In such a
case, a bijective map of the circle on itself is naturally defined. The reader can skip
Section 2 on a first reading.

2. EXISTENCE OF THE HOLDITCH CURVE. In this section we deal with some

technicalities in order to formalize ideas we will later develop.
First, given  > 0 and a closed planar curve α : S 1 → R2 , we will say that
-Holditch curves exist in α if a chord of length  on the trace of α can slide along
the curve smoothly until completing a full turn. Note we use the plural noun because
we can choose any 0 ≤ p ≤  to select a point on the chord for tracing a particular
Holditch curve. Notice that the cases p = 0 and p =  are trivial, as they induce the
same inner curve as the initial one.
As the Holditch curve is also a closed curve, it can be parameterized by S 1 . Each
point on the Holditch curve Hα (s), s ∈ S 1 , has an associated chord whose endpoints
can be denoted by α(g(s)) and α(h(s)), where g, h : S 1 → S 1 are two continuous
maps. Thus, for any p ∈ [0, ], the corresponding -Holditch curve can be built as

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 p α(g(s)) + ( − p) α(h(s))
Hα (s) = , s ∈ S1. (1)


Holditch curves may have retrograde motion. This happens when one of the end-
points of the chord passes through the same point at least twice, as happens in an
equilateral triangle. If both maps g and h are homeomorphisms of the circle, then
there is no retrograde motion. When g is a homeomorphism, Holditch curves can be
reduced to
p α(s) + ( − p) α( f (s))
Hα (s) = , s ∈ S1, (2)


where f = h ◦ g −1 .
First, we give the conditions that ensure the existence of Holditch curves.

Proposition 1. Let α : S 1 → R2 be a closed C 1 -curve such that

i) there is at least one possible position of a chord of length  with endpoints on
the trace of α and,
ii) for any s ∈ S 1 , the extrema of the distance function from α(s) restricted to the
trace of α are at a distance not equal to ,
then, for all 0 ≤ p ≤ , there exists an -Holditch curve.

Proof. We will prove the existence of the Holditch curve as an application of the
implicit function theorem. Let us define F : S 1 × S 1 → R as

F(s, t) = α(s) − α(t)2 .

The function F is C 1 and

∂F
(s, t) = −2 α(s) − α(t), α (t)
.
∂t

Condition i) ensures that there are s0 and t0 such that F(s0 , t0 ) = 2 . More-
over, condition ii) is equivalent to saying that if s, t ∈ S 1 are such that (α(s) −
α(t)) ⊥ α (t), then α(s) − α(t) = . Since α(s0 ) − α(t0 ) = , we have that
α(s0 ) − α(t0 )), α (t0 )
= 0. (Figure 3 illustrates the geometric interpretation of the
second condition.)
Therefore, ∂∂tF (s0 , t0 ) = 0 and we can apply the implicit function theorem. There
exist Us0 , a neighborhood of s0 , Vt0 , a neighborhood of t0 , and a C 1 -function f 0 :
Us0 → Vt0 such that f 0 (s0 ) = t0 and, for any s ∈ Us0 ,
 
F s, f 0 (s) = 2 .

This means that for any s ∈ Us0 , α(s) − α( f 0 (s)) = . We have shown that if there
is one possible position of a chord of length  with endpoints on the trace of α, specif-
ically α(s0 ) and α(t0 ), then a piece of any -Holditch curve can be built in neighbor-
hoods of s0 and t0 .
The extension of f 0 , and therefore of the Holditch curve, to the whole S 1 follows
from a typical argument using connectedness properties of S 1 . Let A ⊂ S 1 be the
subset where f 0 can be extended; that is,

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A := s ∈ S 1 | there exist an open subset U
and a C 0 -function f : U → S 1 , 
such that Us0 ⊂ U, s ∈ U and f |Us0 = f 0 .

Obviously, A = ∅ because Us0 ⊂ A.

The subset A is open because if s1 ∈ A, then F(s1 , t1 := f (s1 )) = 2 , where f
denotes the extension of f 0 . Applying the implicit function theorem as before, there
exist Us1 , a neighborhood of s1 , Vt1 , a neighborhood of t1 , and a C 1 -function f 1 :
Us1 → Vt1 such that f 1 (s1 ) = t1 = f (s1 ) and, for any s ∈ Us1 ,

F(s, f 1 (s)) = 2 .

Thus, we can extend f , and therefore f 0 , along Us1 . Hence, Us1 ⊂ A.

The subset A is closed because if we have a C 1 injective function f :]a, b[→ S 1 ,
then it can be defined on [a, b]. (For a better understanding, see the proof of Theorem
1.)
Since S 1 is connected, we have that A = S 1 . This means that we can extend f 0 to
the whole S 1 as a C 0 -function f : S 1 → S 1 .

Note that in the proof of Proposition 1, we have defined a continuous map f : S 1 →

S associated with a closed curve α such that
1

 
α(s) − α( f (s)) = ,

for all s ∈ S 1 , which is the map that defines the -Holditch curves in α, according to
expression (2). This means that g = Id (which is obviously a homeomorphism) and
h = f is well-defined if we are working under the hypothesis of Proposition 1. We
shall restrict ourselves to the case without retrograde motion. In such a case, the map
f : S 1 → S 1 can be defined as follows: if the chord has an endpoint at α(s), then the
other endpoint is α( f (s)) according to the orientation of the curve (see Figure 2).
In this case we will say that α is -Holditch admissible (or, simply, admissible)
and we will denote by C−ad 1
(resp., P−ad
1
) the space of simple closed C 1 (resp.,
piecewise C ) -Holditch admissible curves.
1

α ( f (s))

α (s)

Figure 2. Definition of the map f : S 1 → S 1 in the case without retrograde motion.

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Remark 1. When the initial curve is a circle, the associated map f : S 1 → S 1 such
that α(s) − α( f (s)) =  is simply a translation f (s) = s + s0 . The value of s0 can
be computed explicitly in terms of the radius r of the circle and the length :
 

s0 = 2 arcsin .
2r

Application to convex curves. Let α : S 1 → R2 be a convex closed curve. Given

s ∈ S 1 , let r (s) be the minimum radius of a circle centered at α(s) and tangent to the
curve α at a point α(t). Let the Holditch radius R H be the infimum of all r (s) for any
s ∈ S1.
The Holditch radius of a circle is its diameter. If the curve is an equilateral triangle
or a square, the Holditch radius is 0, but for a polygon with exterior angles at the
vertices less than π2 , the Holditch radius is strictly positive.

at α(s) with radius r(s)

ntered
ircle ce
c
α (t)
α '(t)

r(s) α (f (s))

α (s)

Figure 3. Definition of the Holditch radius of a curve.

Example 1. Computation
 of the Holditch radius for an ellipse. Let α(s) =
a cos(s), b sin(s) be the usual parameterization of an ellipse with semiaxes a and b.
The computation of its Holditch radius is a typical minimization problem with restric-
tions. Let

F(s, t) = α(s) − α(t)2 .

We have to compute the minimum value of F(s, t) under the restriction α(s) −
α(t), α (t)
= 0. Since

α(s) − α(t), α (t)

   
= 2a 2 cos(s) − cos(t) sin(t) + 2b2 cos(t) − sin(s) + sin(t) ,

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we can solve α(s) − α(t), α (t)
= 0 in terms of t:
⎛   2 ⎞
2 cos(t) a 4 − 2a 2 b2 − b4 − a 2 − b2 cos(2t)
s = f (t) := arccos ⎝     ⎠.
2 a 4 + b4 − 2 a 4 − b4 cos(2t)

By substitution in F(s, t), we get

 3
 
2a 2 b2 a 2 + b2 − (a 2 − b2 ) cos(2t)
G(t) := F f (t), t =  2 .
a 4 + b4 − (a 4 − b4 ) cos(2t)

The solutions of G (t) = 0 are

   √ 
π a a a 2 − 2b2
0, ± , ± arccos ± √ , ± arccos ± √ ,
2 a 2 − b2 a 4 − b4

and the corresponding values of G(t) are

27a 4 b4
4a 2 , 4b2 , 0,  3 .
a 2 + b2

27a 4 b4
Excluding the 0, the minimum is the last value (a 2 +b2 )3
. For example, taking a = 2 and
b = 1, the Holditch radius is

27a 4 b4 432
 3 = = 3.456.
a 2 + b2 125

1.0

0.5

−
−2
2 −1 1 2

− 0.5

−1.0
1.0

Figure 4. Visualization of the Holditch radius of an ellipse.

The next result shows a sufficient condition to have an admissible curve (i.e., no
retrograde motion).

Theorem 1. Let α be a convex simple closed curve, let R H > 0 be its Holditch radius,
and  > 0. If  < R H , then α is -Holditch admissible.

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Proof. Since  < R H , the circle of radius  centered at a point α(s0 ) will intersect the
trace of the curve at two points in a nontangential way. Therefore, conditions i) and
ii) in Proposition 1 hold and show the existence of -Holditch curves in α. Moreover,
the expressions of those curves are reduced to (2). Thus, to prove that α is -Holditch
admissible, we only have to see that the map f : S 1 → S 1 is injective. We define the
function F̄ : S 1 → R as
 
F̄(s) = F s, f (s) ,

where F : S 1 × S 1 → R with F(s, t) = α(s) − α(t)2 . Let us differentiate F̄:

∂F ∂F
F̄ (s) = (s, f (s)) + (s, f (s)) f (s). (3)
∂s ∂t

Now we know that F̄ is constant equal to 2 by definition of f . Thus F̄ (s) = 0 for all
s ∈ S1.
Since  < R H , we have ∂∂tF (s, f (s)) = 0 for all s ∈ S 1 . If we have ∂∂sF (s, f (s)) = 0,
then f (s) = 0 for all s ∈ S 1 , which would imply the injectivity of f . Let us show that
∂F
∂s
(s, f (s)) = 0. We will prove that ∂∂sF (s, f (s)) = 0 implies  ≥ R H . Let s ∈ S 1 . The
fact that

α(s) − α( f (s)), α (s)

= 0

means that α(s) − α( f (s)) is one of the distances considered in the minimum
r ( f (s)), f (s) ∈ S 1 . By definition of R H , we have

α(s) − α( f (s)) ≥ R H ,

which is what we wanted to prove because α(s) − α( f (s)) = .

Remark 2. In Theorem 1 we have seen how to obtain Holditch curves with the map
f : S 1 → S 1 injective depending on the length  of the Holditch chord. We will now
show the geometric interpretation that is behind this result. For any point α(s) on a
closed curve α, let us consider the intersection between the curve and circle centered
at α(s) with radius . If, for some point α(s0 ) the intersection is empty, then α is not
-Holditch admissible. If the intersection is reduced to just one point α(t0 ), then the
circle is tangent to α at α(t0 ), and thus α(s0 ) − α(t0 ), α (t0 )
= 0. If the intersection
has 3 or more points, then the function F(s0 , t) = α(s0 ) − α(t)2 will have some
local minimum at some t0 with F(s0 , t0 ) ≤ . Therefore, the case we were looking for
is when, for any point α(s), the intersection is made up of only two different points
(see Figure 5), and this happens only when we have no retrograde motion. According
to the orientation of the curve, one of the intersection points, let us say α(t1 ), will be
the one next to α(s0 ). Hence, the map f : S 1 → S 1 is well-defined as f (s0 ) = t1 and
the curve is -Holditch admissible.

Example 2. The Holditch radius can be zero but a Holditch curve still exists, as hap-
pens in a square or in an equilateral triangle. In this latter case, an equilateral triangle,
retrograde motion appears as the segment traces the Holditch curve.

Now let us study the continuity of the map that sends any admissible curve (thus,
without retrograde motion) to its Holditch curve. First we will need a preliminary
result.

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 α(f(s )) 2

α(f(s ))
2

α(s ) 2
α(f(s ))1

α(f(s ))
1

α(s )
1
α(s )
2

α(s )
1

Figure 5. If  is less than the Holditch radius, the intersection between the curve and circle centered at α(s)
and with radius  is reduced to only two points (left). If at some point that intersection has three or more points,
then we will have retrograde motion (right).

Lemma 1. Let α and β be two simple closed and admissible curves. Let us denote by
f (resp., g) : S 1 → S 1 the map of the circle defining the Holditch curve of α (resp.,
β); that is,
p α(s) + ( − p) α( f (s)) p β(s) + ( − p) β(g(s))
Hα (s) = , Hβ (s) = .
 
Given η > 0, there is δ > 0 such that, if α(s) − β(s) < δ for all s ∈ S 1 , then
 f (s) − g(s) < η for all s ∈ S 1 .

Proof. Given a differentiable map, h : S 1 → R2 , let us consider

F : (S 1 × R) × (S 1 × R) → R2
defined by
 2 
F(s, u, t, v) = α(s) + u h(s) − (α(t) + v h(t)) , u − v .

Since α is -Holditch admissible, then for all s0 ∈ S 1 there is t0 = f (s0 ) such that
α(s0 ) − α(t0 ) = . Equivalently, F(s0 , 0, t0 , 0) = (2 , 0). Now, it is easy to check
that the 2 × 2 matrix given by the partial derivatives

∂F 
 
∂t (s0 ,0,t0 ,0)
= −2 α(s0 ) − α(t0 ), α (t0 )
, 0 ,

∂F 
∂v (s ,0,t ,0)
= (∗, −1),
0 0

has a maximal rank. We can then apply the implicit function theorem. There are neigh-
borhoods Us0 of (s0 , 0) and Vt0 of (t0 , 0) and a continuous map f s0 : Us0 → Vt0 such
that f s0 (s0 , 0) = (t0 , 0) and, for all (s, u) ∈ Us0 ,
 
F s, u, f s0 (s, u) = (2 , 0). (4)
 s s 
If we write f s0 (s, u) = f 1 0 (s, u), f 2 0 (s, u) , then (4) is equivalent to
s
f 2 0 (s, u) = u,
  
 s s 
α(s) + u h(s) − α( f 1 0 (s, u)) + u h( f 1 0 (s, u))  = . (5)

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 Since S 1 is compact, there is a finite subcover {Ui }i=1 n
where continuous maps
f i : Ui → Vi are defined. If an intersection Ui ∩ U j is not empty, then f i and f j
agree on (s, 0) ∈ Ui ∩ U j . Thus, we can suppose that there is a continuous map
f 1 : S 1 ×] − 2δ0 , 2δ0 [→ S 1 with δ0 > 0. Since f 1 is continuous, given η > 0, there is
some δ > 0, which can be supposed to be less than δ0 , such that if |u| < δ, then
 
 f 1 (s, 0) − f 1 (s, u) < η.

Therefore, if α(s) − β(s) < δ, then

  
 
 f 1 (s, 0) − f 1 s, α(s) − β(s)  < η.

Finally, notice that we can write

β(s) = α(s) + β(s) − α(s)

β(s) − α(s)
= α(s) + α(s) − β(s)
α(s) − β(s)

= α(s) + α(s) − β(s)h(s),

β(s)−α(s)
where h(s) := α(s)−β(s) (extended by continuity where it is not defined).

Wehave then that f 1 (s, 0) = f (s) is the map associated with α, and f 1 s, α(s) −
β(s) = g(s) is the map associated with β by the identity of above applied to (5).
Thus, if α(s) − β(s) < δ, then
 f (s) − g(s) < η.

Theorem 2. The Holditch map is continuous.

Proof. We will show how H : C−ad 1

(S 1 , R2 ) → C 0 (S 1 , R2 ), defined by equation (2),
verifies that, given ε > 0, there is a δ > 0 such that if α(s) − β(s) < δ for all s ∈ S 1 ,
α and β being two simple closed and admissible curves, then
Hα (s) − Hβ (s) < ε
for all s ∈ S 1 .
First, notice that the curve β : S 1 → R2 is a continuous map defined on a compact
set, so it is uniformly continuous; that is, given 2ε , there is η > 0 such that if s − t
< η, then β(s) − β(t) < 2ε .
Now, thanks to Lemma 1, given η, there is a δ > 0, which can be supposed to be
less than 2ε ,such that, if α(s) − β(s) < δ for all s ∈ S 1 , then  f (s) − g(s) < η.
Therefore, β( f (s)) − β(g(s)) < 2ε .
Let us suppose that α(s) − β(s) < δ for all s ∈ S 1 , then
   
α( f (s)) − β(g(s)) = α( f (s)) − β( f (s)) + β( f (s)) − β(g(s))

   
≤ α( f (s)) − β( f (s)) + β( f (s)) − β(g(s))

ε ε ε
≤δ+ < + = ε.
2 2 2

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Therefore, if α(s) − β(s) < δ for all s ∈ S 1 , then

1  
Hα (s) − Hβ (s) ≤ p α(s) − β(s) + ( − p) α( f (s)) − β(g(s))


1
≤ ( p ε + ( − p) ε) = ε.


Remark 3. Notice that, once we have proven the continuity of the Holditch map, the
existence result of Holditch curves can be extended to the piecewise case. Indeed, any
piecewise C 1 closed curve is the limit of a sequence of C 1 closed curves.

3. HOLDITCH CURVE ASSOCIATED WITH AN ANGLE. In our approach, the

treatment of the initial curve as a polygon corresponds to considering two straight lines
that emanate from one point P that subtend a definite angle at P. Suppose now that
the moving chord is shorter than the lengths of all of the edges of the polygon. When
the two ends of the chord move along the same side of the polygon, the corresponding
piece of the Holditch curve is a straight line segment that coincides with part of that
side, so there is no gap between that part of the two curves. The interesting case comes
when each end of the chord is on a different side of the polygon. This is the situation
we will study in this section.
The fact that the resulting curve is a piece of an ellipse has been stated before by
many authors, such as [2, 3, 6]. Our contribution here is to relate the ellipse corre-
sponding to an arbitrary angle with the ellipse corresponding to a right angle through
a shear transformation.
We will say that a Holditch ellipse is oblique if its semiaxes are not parallel to any
of the two semistraight lines, otherwise, we say that it is orthogonal.
First, we recall the definition of a shear transformation.

Definition 1. A horizontal shear transformation is a linear map Sc : R2 → R2 , where

c ∈ R, defined by

Sc (x, y) = (x + cy, y).

If, in addition, a horizontal translation of vector x0 is applied, the resulting linear map
will be denoted by Sc,x0 : R2 → R2 and its expression is

Sc,x0 (x, y) = (x + x0 + cy, y).

There are two main properties of shear mappings that we are going to need. First,
since their Jacobians are equal to 1, shear transformations preserve areas. Second,
shears transform orthogonal ellipses into oblique ellipses.
The following result indicates what kind of curve the Holditch curve is in the case
we are focusing on and shows a way to find out where the area of the Holditch ellipse
comes from. Let us recall, as stated in [6], page 65, that the Holditch curve associated
to an angle is a particular case of the ellipse construction invented by Leonardo da
Vinci.

Proposition 2. The Holditch curve defined by two semistraight lines is a piece of an

oblique ellipse (see Figure 6) obtained by a shear transformation of an orthogonal one
with the same area.

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 θ

Figure 6. Holditch’s curve is an arc of an oblique ellipse which in turn is the image by a shear of an orthogonal
ellipse with semiaxes p and  − p. Its area is θ2 p ( − p), where θ is the external angle.

Proof. Let us denote by θ the external angle formed by the two semistraight lines and
let t be the angle between the Holditch chord and one of the lines. We will use the
quantity t to parameterize the Holditch curve. The situation is represented in Figure 7.

B
−p

C
sin t sin t
p sin θ

A t θ
cos t − sin t cot θ O sin t cot θ V

Figure 7. Parameterization of a Holditch curve.

We set the origin of the coordinates O = (0, 0) at the intersection of our two semi-
straight lines. Let A = A(t) and B = B(t) be the points defined by the ends of the
chord in the semistraight lines. Then it is easy to notice that the only thing we need
to be able to parameterize the Holditch curve is to know the coordinates of A and B,
since such parameterization would be defined as

1 
γ (t) = ( − p) A + p B , t ∈ [0, θ]. (6)

If we focus on the triangle OVB and call its hypotenuse v, then we have  sin(t) =
v sin(θ), from which it follows that v =  sin(θ)
sin(t)
. Thus, the side O V of the triangle has
length v cos(θ) =  sin(t) cot(θ). From this we get
 
B =  sin(t) cot(θ),  sin(t) .

Now we focus on the triangle AVB. If the length of the side AO is called x, then
 cos(t) = x +  sin(t) cot(θ). From that we obtain x =  cos(t) −  sin(t) cot(θ).

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Thus we deduce that
 
A = − cos(t) +  sin(t) cot(θ), 0 .

By replacing the points A and B in (6), we conclude that

 
γθ, p, (t) = −( − p) cos(t) +  sin(t) cot(θ), p sin(t) , t ∈ [0, θ] (7)

is the parameterization of the Holditch curve.

In particular, notice that when θ = π2 , the expression (7) reduces to
   π
γ π2 , p, (t) = −( − p) cos(t), p sin(t) , t ∈ 0, ,
2
which is the parameterization of an ellipse with semiaxes lengths p and  − p.
Finally, it is easy to check that
 
γθ, p, = S  cot(θ) γ π2 , p, (t) , t ∈ [0, θ],
p

with S  cot(θ) : R2 → R2 , a horizontal shear transformation.

p
This means that the Holditch curve defined by two semistraight lines with external
angle θ is the image by a shear of a (0, θ)-arc of an orthogonal ellipse with semiaxes
lengths p and  − p. Moreover, remember that shears transform orthogonal ellipses
into oblique ellipses. Then, the Holditch curve is an arc of an oblique ellipse.
Furthermore, since shear transformations preserve areas, the area defined by the
two semistraight lines and the Holditch curve is equal to the area of a sector of an
orthogonal ellipse with semiaxes lengths p and  − p.

Now that we know the explicit parameterization of the Holditch curve given in (7),
we can see what it is like in some easy examples. For instance, Figure 8 shows the inner
curve when the initial curve is a square as well as when it is an equilateral triangle.
In these examples, we can understand the usefulness of the shear map defined in the
previous proof at each vertex of the polygonal curve. In the square we have four equal
parts of an ellipse with semiaxes lengths 1 and 1 − p and in the triangle, three pieces
of an oblique ellipse (obtained by a shear transformation of an orthogonal one). From
the fact that shear maps preserve areas, we deduce that the area in both examples is the
same as the area of the Holditch ellipse, as stated in Proposition 2.

Figure 8. Holditch curve in a square and in an equilateral triangle with different choices of p.

We will use the previous basic result about Holditch curves in the following two
sections, in which we conduct a separate study depending on the length of the chord.

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4. POLYGONS WITH LONG SIDES. According to the previous section, we can
now easily deal with polygons with all sides longer than the length of the moving
chord. The next result shows that if we are in this case, we are finished.

Proposition 3. The area between a convex closed polygonal curve with sides of length
larger than the length of the moving chord and its Holditch curve is equal to the area
of an ellipse with both semiaxes lengths being the same as those into which the point
divides the chord.

Proof. Suppose that the initial curve is an n-sided convex closed polygon with external
angles θi , i = 1, . . . , n, defined at each vertex. By Proposition 2, the area at each
vertex between the polygon and the Holditch curve is the area of a (0, θi )-sector of an
orthogonal ellipse with semiaxes lengths p and  − p. That area is well known and
equal to

θi
p ( − p).
2
Therefore, if we have n vertices, the total Holditch area would be


n
θi 1  n
p ( − p) = p ( − p) θi .
i=1
2 2 i=1

n
Now i=1 θi = 2 π since it is the sum of all the external angles in a simple closed
polygon. Thus we conclude that the total Holditch area is π p( − p), the area of the
ellipse with semiaxes lengths p and  − p that we were looking for.

5. CUTTING OFF A CORNER. In the previous section we have seen how to deal
with the case of a polygonal curve with all sides longer than the length of the moving
chord. Since our interest is to build a sequence of convex polygonal curves approxi-
mating a curve, the next step is to deal with a polygonal curve, some of the sides of
which are shorter than the chord.
The situation now is that the endpoints of the moving chord could not be on con-
secutive sides of the polygon. Then the Holditch curve will be piecewise defined, as
we show in Figure 9.

θ2

θ1 θ1+θ2

Figure 9. We cut off a triangular region at the corner.

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 To solve this general case we take the following point of view. The idea is to think
that the only thing we have done to the previously studied case of two semistraight
lines is to cut off an old corner with a straight line, as Figure 9 shows. Then it is
easy to parameterize the pieces of the Holditch curve separately, noticing which exter-
nal angle is in play. Thus, the problem is reduced to the one studied in the previous
section, since each piece of the curve is a translation and rotation of the same parame-
terization (7), taking the appropriate angle. The change points can be obtained with a
short calculation.
We have then that, in the process of cutting off corners, the Holditch curve in each
piece is an oblique ellipse obtained by a shear defined by some angle. This urges us to
study the intersection between two oblique ellipses obtained by shearing an orthogonal
one.

C1 C2

A2 A1 O2 O1

Figure 10. The areas of both regions are the same.

Lemma 2. Let C1 be the oblique ellipse defined as the image of an orthogonal ellipse
by the horizontal shear transformation Sc1 (x, y) = (x + c1 y, y), and let C2 be the
oblique ellipse defined as the image of the same orthogonal ellipse by a horizontal
shear transformation plus a horizontal translation Sc2 ,x0 (x, y) = (x + x0 + c2 y, y)
with x0 < 0 (see Figure 10). Suppose that c1 < c2 . Let Ai be the leftmost intersection
between the line joining the centers O1 and O2 of both ellipses and the ellipse Ci ,
i = 1, 2. Among the four possible intersection points between the two ellipses, let P
be the one located above that line and to the left. The area defined by the three points
A1 , A2 , and P is equal to the area of a triangle with a base of length −x0 and height
x0
c1 −c2
.

Proof. If we apply Sc1 −c2 to the second ellipse, then what we get is the same first ellipse
C1 but translated according to the vector (x0 , 0). The region (P, A2 , C) (see Figure 11)
is transformed into the region defined by points (Q, A2 , C). The area we are looking
for is the area of (P, A2 , C) minus the area of (P, A1 , C). Since shear transformations
preserve area, the area of (P, A2 , C) is the same as the area of (Q, A2 , C). Moreover,
the area of (P, A1 , C) is the same as the area of (Q, A2 , D). Therefore, the area of
(P, A2 , A1 ) is the same as the area of the triangle (Q, D, C). The length of its base is
the norm of the vector (x0 , 0) and its height is the height of the intersection point P. A
straightforward computation shows that the second coordinate of P is c1x−c 0
2
.

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 Q P

A2 D A1 C

Figure 11. Enlargement of the significant area.

The following idea illustrates the purpose of the previous result. The case we are
focusing on now, as we said before, is the one shown in Figure 9, which is none other
than the basic case of two semistraight lines that form an external angle θ1 + θ2 , but
cutting off its corner with another straight line that forms angles θ1 and θ2 with each
of the first two lines. Now, in this case we want to study the new area between the
Holditch curve, which is piecewise defined, and the sides of the polygon. The idea is
to prove that the area of the triangle removed by the new line is equal to the area of
both the new bumps of area that appear on each side. This is what the following results
deal with. See Figure 12.

Figure 12. The area of the removed triangle is equal to the sum of the areas defined by the two new pieces of
the Holditch curve.

In what follows in this section, for the sake of simplicity we will assume that  = 1.
Clearly this can be achieved with a scale change.

Lemma 3. The area of the left bump is equal to p times the area of the removed
triangle.

Proof. We will apply Lemma 2 to the situation shown in Figure 9. In this case, the
two shears are defined by the parameters (according to the notation in the statement of
Lemma 2):

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 cot(θ1 + θ2 ) cot(θ1 )
c1 = , c2 = , and x0 ,
p p

where c1 < c2 and x0 < 0. Therefore, the area of the left bump is equal to

1 x02 1 x02 p x02 sin(θ1 + θ2 ) sin(θ1 )

Abump = = cot(θ1 ) cot(θ1 +θ2 )
= .
2 c2 − c1 2 p
− p
2 sin(θ2 )

On the other hand, let us compute the area of the removed triangle. We can get its
height from the system of equations
 h
−x0 +a
= tan(θ1 ),
h
a
= tan(θ1 + θ2 ),

where a ∈ R. The solution is

x0 sin(θ1 + θ2 ) sin(θ1 )
h=− .
sin(θ2 )
Therefore, the area of the triangle is

x0 h 1 x02 sin(θ1 + θ2 ) sin(θ1 ) 1

AT = − = = Abump ,
2 2 sin(θ2 ) p

which is what we wanted to prove.

From this, the general result follows easily.

Proposition 4. The area of the removed triangle is equal to the sum of the areas of the
two new bumps of the Holditch curve.

1-p

p 1-p

Figure 13. Representation of the flip.

Proof. Let AT be the area of the removed triangle. As we have seen, the area of the
left bump is equal to p AT . Thanks to a flip with respect to the bisecting line of the
inner angle at the corner, we can interchange both bumps (see Figure 13). Notice that
the flip also interchanges the lengths p and q = 1 − p in the chord. Hence, the area of
the second bump is equal to (1 − p) AT . Thus, the sum of the areas of both bumps is
equal to AT .

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 A new bump

A removed

A small

Figure 14. Case when the straight line that cuts off the corner also cuts the Holditch curve.

We remark now that in the previous procedure we have supposed something implic-
itly. The fact is that, depending on the choice of p, there is another possibility that we
have not talked about. This appears when the straight line that cuts off the corner also
cuts the Holditch curve we had. In this case we do not really remove the full area
inside the triangle, only Aremoved (see Figure 14). It is easy to check that the sense of
the previous statement is still true in this case, i.e., the sum of the areas of both bumps
is equal to the removed area. Indeed, let us suppose, without loss of generality, that the
left bump is the one with problems. We have proved before that

Aleft bump + Aupper bump = AT .

Then, with the notation of Figure 14, since AT = Aremoved + Asmall and Aleft bump =
Anew bump + Asmall , we conclude that

Anew bump + Aupper bump = Aremoved ,

as we wanted to see.
If the previous problem appears in both bumps, we can argue similarly with each of
them to reach the same conclusion, i.e., the sum of the areas of both bumps is equal to
the removed area.

6. CUT-AND-PASTE CONSTRUCTION OF THE HOLDITCH ELLIPSE. Given

a convex planar closed curve α : S 1 → R2 with nonvanishing curvature and a natural
number n greater than 1, let us build a convex polygon Pn with 2n sides as follows.   For
any i ∈ {0, 1, 2, . . . , 2n − 1}, let L i be the tangent line to the curve α at α 2πi . The
vertices of the polygon are the intersection points between two consecutive tangent
lines L i and L i+1 (mod 2n ) , and the sides are the tangent segments between two vertices.
Each polygon Pn has an associated Holditch curve Hn . At each term the area
between Hn and Pn is equal to the area of an ellipse with semiaxes p and  − p. The
process of passing from one term in the sequence {Pn }∞ n=2 to the next one consists in a
finite number of “cutting of a corner” steps, as can be seen in Figure 15.
Figure 16 shows the three first terms of the sequence of Holditch curves associated
with a circle and also with the convex curve of Figure 1. Both examples clearly show
the fast convergence of the sequences, as we can see, with a small number of terms.

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 Figure 15. A corner cut off by the construction of the sequence of polygons.

Figure 16. The three first terms in the sequence toward the Holditch curve of a circle (above) and of a convex
planar curve (below).

Since the sequence of polygons {Pn }∞n=2 converges to the curve α and the map send-
ing any admissible curve to its Holditch curve is continuous (Theorem 2), then the
sequence of Holditch curves {Hn }∞n=2 converges to the Holditch curve of α. Intuitively,
this shows that the Holditch area is the result of an infinite number of “cutting off a
corner” steps which distribute the area of the Holditch ellipse by pasting small pieces
of it.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT. The authors wish to thank Mark Cooker for his interest and careful reading of the
preprint we sent him. We have taken note of his comments to improve some details in the writing. The first
author is partially supported by DGICYT grant MTM2012-33073.

REFERENCES

1. A. Broman, Holditch’s theorem, Math. Mag. 54 (1981) 99–108.

2. M. J. Cooker, An extension of Holditch’s theorem on the area within a closed curve, Math. Gaz. 82 (1998)
183–188.
3. M. A. Hacar Benı́tez, Numerosas aplicaciones de un teorema olvidado de geometrı́a, Rev. Obras Públicas
127 (1980) 415–428.
4. Rev. H. Holditch, Geometrical theorem, Quart. J. Pure Appl. Math. 2 (1858) 38.
5. C. A. Pickover, The Math Book: From Pythagoras to the 57th Dimension, 250 Milestones in the History
of Mathematics. Sterling, New York, 2009.
6. D. Wells, The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Geometry. Penguin Books, New York, 1991.

420 
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Note added in proof. After the acceptance of this paper, an article appeared where
the the existence of Holditch curves is also studied: H. Proppe et al., On Holditch’s
theorem and Holditch curves, Journal of Convex Analysis 24 (February, 2017) 239–
259.

JUAN MONTERDE received his Ph.D. from the University of Valencia in 1988. His interests range from
classical differential geometry to computer-aided geometric design.
Dept. of Mathematics, University of Valencia, Avd. Vicent Andrés Estellés, 1, E-46100-Burjassot (València),
Spain
monterde@uv.es

DAVID ROCHERA earned his master’s degree from the University of Valencia in 2015. He is especially
interested in the areas of classical differential geometry and applied mathematics.
Dept. of Mathematics, University of Valencia, Avd. Vicent Andrés Estellés, 1, E-46100-Burjassot (València),
Spain
David.Rochera@uv.es

100 Years Ago This Month in The American Mathematical Monthly

Edited by Vadim Ponomarenko
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a committee of the faculty has been
appointed to consider ways of improving methods of instruction. Dr. C. R. MANN,
who for the past two years has been preparing a report on engineering education
under the auspices of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching,
has been called to the Institute to be chairman of the committee. In the Educational
Review, January 17, Dr. MANN has published “A study of engineering education,”
[which] shows some interesting studies on the capabilities of students in technical
schools. Under the head of “What freshmen know and can do,” it is shown that 90 per
cent. of those tested could solve the simplest linear equation in algebra, while only
one third of the freshmen could substitute and correctly reduce a simple, fractional
expression containing x, a, b, when x = (a + b) ÷ 2. But in “What the schools do to
freshmen,” it appears that of 2,000 students who entered technical schools in 1911,
only 732 graduated in 1915; the mortality in particular studies seems rather high, 52
per cent. passing in physics and a like number in mechanics, 45 per cent. in calculus,
43 per cent. in modern languages and English, and 34 per cent. in chemistry.

—Excerpted from “Notes and News” 24 (1917) 247–253.

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