Related papers: Poncelet Propellers: Invariant Total Blade Area
The 1d family of Poncelet polygons interscribed between two circles is known as the Bicentric family. Using elliptic functions and Liouville's theorem, we show (i) that this family has invariant sum of internal angle cosines and (ii) that…
We introduce several-dozen experimentally-found invariants of Poncelet N-periodics in the confocal ellipse pair (Elliptic Billiard). Recall this family is fully defined by two integrals of motion (linear and angular momentum), so any "new"…
We tour several Euclidean properties of Poncelet triangles inscribed in an ellipse and circumscribing the incircle, including loci of triangle centers and envelopes of key objects. We also show that a number of degenerate behaviors are…
New invariants in the one-dimensional family of 3-periodic orbits in the elliptic billiard were introduced by the authors in "Can the Elliptic Billiard Still Surprise Us?" (2020), Math. Intelligencer, 42(1): 6--17, some of which were…
We construct a simple topological invariant of certain 3-manifolds, including quotients of the 3-sphere by finite groups, based on the fact that the tangent bundle of an orientable 3-manifold is trivialisable. This invariant is strong…
We describe some three-dozen curious phenomena manifested by parabolas inscribed or circumscribed about certain Poncelet triangle families. Despite their pirouetting motion, parabolas' focus, vertex, directrix, etc., will often sweep or…
We study six pedal-like curves associated with the ellipse which are area-invariant for pedal points lying on one of two shapes: (i) a circle concentric with the ellipse, or (ii) the ellipse boundary itself. Case (i) is a corollary to…
It has been shown that the family of Poncelet N-gons in the confocal pair (elliptic billiard) conserves the sum of cosines of its internal angles. Curiously, this quantity is equal to the sum of cosines conserved by its affine image where…
We classify perimeter dominant triangles whose side lengths are in $\sqrt3\mathbb N$ and whose area is in $\frac{\sqrt3}4\mathbb N$. There is one exceptional example, which is equilateral, and three infinite families determined by certain…
In the projective plane over a finite field of characteristic not equal to 2, we compute the probability that a randomly selected pair of distinct conics $(\mathscr{A},\mathscr{B})$, with $\mathscr{A}$ smooth or singular and $\mathscr{B}$…
Inverting the vertices of elliptic billiard N-periodics with respect to a circle centered on one focus yields a new "focus-inversive" family inscribed in Pascal's Lima\c{c}on. The following are some of its surprising invariants: (i)…
We study a one parameter family of cubic self-inversive polynomials that "envelope" conic sections in the following sense. Provided the three roots of the polynomial lie on the unit circle, when you draw the triangle connecting the roots,…
Discovered by William Chapple in 1746, the Poristic family is a set of variable-perimeter triangles with common Incircle and Circumcircle. By definition, the family has constant Inradius-to-Circumradius ratio. Interestingly, this invariance…
Poncelet polygons inscribed in a circle and circumscribed about conics from a confocal family naturally arise in the analysis of the numerical range and Blaschke products. We examine the behaviour of such polygons when the inscribed conic…
We recall the definition of Poncelet varieties that generalize the celebrated Poncelet curves introduced by Darboux. We show that any quadric and any smooth cubic in the projective space of dimension three is a Poncelet surface but that a…
We study the spatial isosceles three body problem, which is a system with two degrees of freedom after modulo the rotation symmetry. For certain choices of energy and angular momentum, we find some disk-like global surfaces of section with…
We study curves obtained by tracing triangle centers within special families of triangles, focusing on centers and families that yield (semi-)invariant triangle curves, meaning that varying the initial triangle changes the loci only by an…
A triangle center such as the incenter, barycenter, etc., is specified by a function thrice- and cyclically applied on sidelengths and/or angles. Consider the 1d family of 3-periodics in the elliptic billiard, and the loci of its triangle…
The three Apollonius circles of a triangle, each passing through a triangle vertex, the corresponding vertex of the cevian triangle of the incenter and the corresponding vertex of the circumcevian triangle of the symmedian point, are…
The geodesic length spectrum of a complete, finite volume, hyperbolic 3-orbifold M is a fundamental invariant of the topology of M via Mostow-Prasad Rigidity. Motivated by this, the second author and Reid defined a two-dimensional analogue…