Coil

Quadrilateral Coil, 2 February 1997

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In this JavaSketch, congruent quadrilaterals are joined edge to edge. You can vary the shape of the quadrilaterals by dragging the vertices at the yellow quadrilateral.

  • What series of quadrilaterals create a straight line?
  • What must be true of the quadrilaterals in order for a "coil" of them to close perfectly upon itself?

If you drag the coil into oblivion, you can reset the JavaSketch to its original shape by pressing the up-arrow key.

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