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stranger
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Like most people, I am familiar with the names for common polygons, such as pentagon, hexagon and octagon for polygons of 5, 6 and 8 sides, respectively. I now find myself in need of a word to describe a 15-sided polygon. Does anybody here know if there is such a word? Is there a rule of thumb for the naming of polygons of various numbers of sides?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Jun 2002
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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that's a good site too, Bill. if you scroll down on my second link, it lists them all up to 50, and then by tens, etc. 
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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And here is a site about how to construct one:
You're way out in geek territory there, Bill. Why not just draw a circle and call it a pentadecagon? Or even Jim or Bob, for that matter. Who'd notice?
- Pfranz
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Many years ago I was sitting looking at a styrofoam coffee cup, which is basically a conic section. I can;t remember what possessed me to do this, but I started cutting the coffee cups into rings about an inch deep and using paper clips to see how they went together.
The inner rings didn't work really well, but the largest rings, which were just a tad thicker than the rest of the cup, when paperclipped together, yielded a globe about 20 inches in diameter. The pattern was quite complex, since there were places where instead of six circles around a central circle the natural geometry of the circles required a pentagonal formation, much like the patterns you see on geodesic domes.
Eventually, I figured out that I could put a white globe light source in the middle of this larger globe, and I made several of them as lamps for friends of mine.
Mike Hill, when he moved from the DC area to (coincidentally) here in the Denver area, had one trashed during the shipment of his household goods and the moving company actually paid him $200 for the damage! And this was perhaps 25 years ago.
The things were actually quite attractive if you didn't get right up close to them, and made interesting hanging lights.
And everyone's wondering where the pun is. Sorry to disappoint you!
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Pfranz: If I had devised that solution, or could prove it, you'd be entitled to call me a geek.
I used to enjoy doing originals in geometry, but can't imagine how to construct an angle of
twenty four degrees. I don't have enough smarts left to even think about it.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Hey, Pfranz: This Internet is really something. Just for the hell of it, I searched for and found a way to construct an angle of 24 degrees. An equilateral triangle has 120 debrees. A regular pentagon has an angle of 72 degrees. The difference is 48 degrees. Half of that is 24 degrees. I found a site to construct a regular pentagon. It is fairly short, but I haven't mastered it yet. http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/formulas/faq.regpoly.html#floorNot quite enough to pat myself on the back, and claim I'm a geek. Bill
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