Abstract
A variation of the Reuleaux triangle was used in 1939 to describe a device that can drill a perfect square hole. The image shows how, when the outer shape rotates inside a square, the triangular cutting tool traces out an exact square. One can use this to build a device that transforms standard circular motion into motion that drives the Reuleaux rotor in the proper way, and so drills a perfect square hole.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wagon, S. (2010). Rolling Circles. In: Wagon, S. (eds) Mathematica in Action. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-75477-2_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-75477-2_4
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-75366-9
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-75477-2
eBook Packages: Mathematics and StatisticsMathematics and Statistics (R0)