Growing with Applied Mathematics Experiences (G.A.M.E.

Geometry in my country
Jean Monnet High School
Miruna Iscu
The castle in Zau de Câmpie, Mureș was
The Calendar Castle built according to the principles of a
calendar. It has 365 windows, the number
of days in a year, 4 towers, the same as the
number of seasons, 52 rooms, the number
of weeks, 7 terraces, the number of days in
a week, and 12 halls, the number of months
of the year. The castle stands under the sign
of an unfulfilled love story between the
owner and a Russian princess. In 1911, the
construction of the holiday residence of
Baron István Ugron⁠(hu) began, an
architecture faithful to French medieval
castles.
The castle was, in turn, a sanatorium for TB
patients, a school and a grain warehouse, and
in recent years a children's home.
Geometrical remarks on the windows above the entrance
Let the center circle be O and the radius R. If the 4 circles are congruent and tangent two by two and
the fifth circle has a radius equal to the distance from the center of the large circle to the point of
contact, let's find out what r is.
 If OA=R and:
AB=BC=CD=r ⇒
OB=OD= R–r
BD=2r
∡BOD=90°

According to the
Pythagorean theorem:

𝑂𝐵2 + 𝑂𝐷2 = 𝐵𝐷2

⇒(𝑅 − 𝑟)2 + (𝑅 − 𝑟)2 =
(2𝑟)2
⇒ R2 – 2Rr + r2 + R2 – 2Rr
+ r2 = 4r2

⇒2R2 – 4Rr + 2r2 = 4r2 |:2

⇒ R2 – 2Rr + r2 = 2r2
⇒ R2 – 2Rr + 2r2–r2 = 0
⇒ R2 – 2Rr + r2 = 0 ⇒ Quadratic equation ⇒Δ= b2 – 4ac ≥ 0 ⇒
= 4R2 + 4 · 1 ∙ R2 = 8R2 ≥ 0
−2𝑅±√8𝑅 2 −2𝑅±2√8𝑅 2 2(–R±√2R)
⇒ r1,2 = = = =– R ± 2√2R
2 2 2

r1 =– R + 2√2R =R(2√2– 1) ≥ 0

r2 = – R– 2√2R =R(– 2√2– 1) < 0 ⇒ negative solutions are not accepted in geometry
The construction made has R=9 ⇒

r = R(2√2– 1) = (1,41 − 1) ∙ 9 = 0,41 ∙ 9 ≈ 3,69

⇒ r≃ 3,69
OBS: If a stained glass window can in reality be 1.5m high, we can find out,
approximately, the scale at which the picture is taken.
9 cm 9 cm 3 6
= = =
1.5 m 150 cm 50 100