Areas of Polygons Inscribed in a Circle David P. Robbins The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 102, No. 6 (Jun. - Jul., 1995), 523-530. Stable URL htp:/flinks.jstor-org/sicisici=0002-9890% 28 199506%2F07%29 102%3A6%3CS23%3AA OPIIA3E2.0,CO%3B2-P. ‘The American Mathematical Monthly is currently published by Mathematical Association of America, Your use of the ISTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at hup:/www,jstororglabout/terms.hml. ISTOR’s Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at hutp:/wwww jstor.org/jounals/maa. html, ch copy of any part of'a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the sereen or printed page of such transmission, ISTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support @ jstor.org. hupulwww jstor.org/ Mon Nov 14 21:14:39 2005Areas of Polygons Inscribed in a Circle David P. Robbins 1, INTRODUCTION. Since a triangle is determined by the lengths, a, b, ¢ of its three sides, the area K of the triangle is determined by these three lengths. The well-known formula K= s(s—ay(s— bys), (ay where s is the semiperimeter (a + b + c)/2, makes this dependence explicit. (This formula is usually ascribed to Heron of Alexandria, c. 60 BC, although some attribute it to Archimedes.) When I was in about 7th grade I worked out Heron’s formula for myself by drawing an altitude and using two instances of the Pythagorean theorem, (I was unaware of this elegant factored form above.) My fascination with the way symmetry entered the formula has stayed with me for many years For polygons of more than three sides, the lengths of the sides do not determine the polygon or its area. However, if we impose the condition that the polygon be convex and cyclic, (i.e. inscribed in a circle) then the area of the polygon is uniquely determined. Moreover, it is a symmetric function of the side lengths. The symmetry can be seen by regarding the polygon as the union of isosceles triangles cach bounded by two radii and an edge of the polygon. From this point of view, we sce that changing the order of the sides leaves the area unaffected. Given postive real numbers 4j,...,2,, one can construct a convex si-gon with the a's as the lengths of the sides provided that the largest a, is smaller than the sum of the remaining ones. In this case itis also possible t0 construct a convex cyclic: n-gon with the same sides and this cyclic n-gon has the largest area of all n-gons with the” given side lengths. The monograph of Coxeter and Greitzer [1, pages 56-60] contains an interesting discussion which renewed my interest in the subject when T was teaching geometry at Phillips Exeter Academy almost 20 years ago. In particular the reader will find in [1] a formula analogous to (1.1), given by Brahmagupta in the seventh century, for the area K of a eyelic quadrilateral whose four sides have lengths a, b, c, and d. It is K=\G~ajls-bys=os= a), where again s is the semiperimeter (a + 6 + c + d)/2. Having read this section of [1] made me wonder what the formulas would be for polygons of more sides and I have worked sporadically on the problem since then. In this article 1 will present formulas, analogous to those of Heron and Brahmagupta, for the areas of the eyelic pentagon and eyclic hexagon. Fot a more detailed exposition see (2) i may scem surprising that so long a time has elapsed between the discovery of the formula for the area of the cyclic quadrilateral and the one for the elie pentagon, We shall see that the calculations leading to the discovery of the 1995] AREAS OF POLYGONS INSCRIBED IN A CIRCLE 523pentagon formula are so complex that it would have been quite difficult to carry them out without the aid of a computer. In fact after some study of the problem I thought it likely that, even if I were to discover the formula, its complexity would make it of little interest to write down, However it is possible to write the formulas for the areas of the cyclic pentagon and the cyclic hexagon in a compact form which is related to the formula for the discriminant of @ cubic polynomial in one variable. ‘A number of colleagues have made helpful suggestions, some of which have been incorporated in the exposition below, I would like particularly to acknowl edge the contributions of Bradley Brock, Russell Kulsrud, David Lieberman, James Maiorana and Lee Neuwirth. 2. AN ALGEBRAIC FORMULATION OF THE PROBLEM. The convexity condi tion for polygons is algebraically unnatural. It is simpler to consider the following slightly generalized problem. Given positive real numbers a),..., 4, find the areas of all n-gons whose side lengths are a,,...,a,, and whose vertices lie on a circle. Here an n-gon is a sequence of n points P,,.”., P, in a plane. Its n side lengths are the distances P,P,,..., P,_;Pyy P,Py. Note that these polygons need not be convex and may intersect themselves. Let us define the area of a planar polygon whose vertices are P, = (xy, ¥)s-+.y Py = (ys Yy) 10 be HT a Defined this way the area is the sum of the areas of the components into which the polygon divides the plane, with cach component weighted by the winding number of the polygon about a point in the component. The area can be negative and its sign changes when the polygon is traversed backwards, However the new formulas, like those of Heron and Brahmagupta, involve only the square of the area. Heron's formula can be restated 16K? = 2a°b? + 2ac? + 2b?e? — a’ HOY 2 ya] tn Yn oY btaet (22) so that 16K? is equal to a polynomial with integer coefficients in the squares of . the sides of the triangle. Brahmagupta’s formula is 16K? = 2076? + ~~ +2c%d? ~ a4 ~ bY — c# ~ d* + Sabed so that 16K? is equal to a polynomial in the side lengths in which the exponents of each term are either all even or all odd. If in the right-hand side of Brahmagupta’s formula a single side length is replaced by its negative, one obtains the equation, 16K? = 2a*b? + +++ +2c%d? — a ~ b* ~ c* — d* — Babed. This has a natural geometric interpretation. It gives the area K, in the sense described above, of a nonconvex cyclic quadrilateral of side lengths a, b, ¢, d. 3. CONJECTURES ON AREAS OF CYCLIC POLYGONS. In this section 1 will describe some general conjectures about cyclic polygons. I still do not know how to rove them but the understanding they provided made it possible to discover the correct formulas for the cyclic pentagon and cyclic hexagon whose fairly simple rigorous proofs are indicated below. 54 [AREAS OF POLYGONS INSCRIBED IN A CIRCLE (June-JulyNotice that Heron’s formula states that 16K? satisfies a monic polynomial of degree 1, namely one of the form u — & where ois the right-hand side of (2.2). Its (two) coefficients are symmetric polynomials with integer coefficients in the squares of the sides of the triangle. In the next section we shall see that, for a cyclic pentagon, 16K? satisfies a monic polynomial of degree 7. Each of its coefficients is a symmetric polynomial with integer coefficients in the squares of the sides of the pentagon. More generally there are reasons (indicated below) to believe that, for a cyclic polygon of 2m + 1 sides, 16K? satisfies a monic polynomial of degree A,,, where the sequence Bi Ba, As, Ag Ass +7,38, 187,874, is defined by bn Smo") s[em+o(2”) <2}, and that its coefficients are symmetri squares of the sides of the polygon. For polygons with 2m + 2 sides there is an analogous conjecture that 16K? satisfies one of two monic polynomials each of degree A. Both of these polynomi- als have coefficients which are themselves symmetric” polynomials with integer coefficients in the side lengths. In these symmetric polynomials every monomial consists entirely of even powers or entirely of odd powers of the side lengths. Moreover, the two monic polynomials are closely related. Either can be obtained from the other by replacing any single side by its negative. We have already observed this for cyclic quadrilaterals and we shall see that it also holds for the hexagon, Some parts of these conjectures are easily proved. For example, let us see why some algebraic relation always exists. tis helpful to employ a presentation of the problem in terms of complex numbers that will also be useful in the proofs of the formulas for the pentagon and hexagon. Assume that a polygon has its vertices on a circle centered at the origin in the complex plane. Suppose that these vertices are in order vj,...t and that the radius of the circle is R. Also let v,., = 0) ands define the quotients polynomials with integer coefficients in the 4) = Yer/thp 5 dn ‘Then, letting a, be the distance from v; 10 v;,.1, We have Rj 44 — B\(I/tj21 > 1/0) = R(2- 4) - a7"). BAD Using the definition (2.1) of the area of a polygon we have a? = Nyj41 — YP? K= (1/2) lm(05;4¢ a/4i) £ RCo; 44/0; — Y/R 41): int Hence 16K? = RY(0y/0y ~ 04/0, # P= Ra, Fy a = It follows that the m+ 1 quantities 16K? and a?,j=1,...,n, are rational functions of the n + 1 variables R and qy,..-,dy. But the 4,’s satisfy the relation 1995) [AREAS OF POLYGONS INSCRIBED IN A CIRCLE 5254; *** Gq = Land are therefore algebraically dependent over the rational num- bers. Hence the functions 16K? and a? must themselves be algebraically depen- dnt over the rationals. The reason for believing that the degree of the polynomial for (2m + 1)-gons is Ay. is that 4, appears t0 be the largest number of distinct areas that can occur with a given set of side lengths. Suppose that m= 2m + 1. It seems that the maximum number of areas is achieved when the m side-lengths are distinct but nearly equal. Imagine a circle of variable radius and let us try to inscribe a polygon with sides of the given lengths in the circle by picking an arbitrary starting point and laying out the edges, one at a time, with the given lengths. When the radius is too large, we will not reach the starting point when we have used up all the sides. As we decrease the radius there will come a time when we return exactly to our starting point. The resulting polygon will be nearly the regular polygon with n sides. If we continue to decrease the radius, we will overshoot the starting point starting to go around the circle again, When the radius has decreased enough, we will go around the circle exactly twice, creating a star. We can continue this way finding radii requiring more trips around the citcle yielding stars with sharper points. However no edge can go as much as halfway around the cicle so that the maximum number of times we can 0 around is m, This is where the frst m areas come from, ‘There are other solutions. These arise as follows. We have so far assumed (implicitly) that, as we lay out all the sides around the circle, we are always proceeding in the same direction, But this is not necessary, We ean lay down one of the sides in the opposite direction. Then we get a solution which looks something like a (2m — 1)-gon because the backwards edge almost coincides with the preceding and following edges. Here we have 2m + 1 choices for the back- wards edge and for each of these choices we can still go around the circle m ~ 1 times. In general each choice will require a different radius and yield a different area, terms are explained by selecting more, up to m ~ 1, of the sides to go backwards, Diagram 1 illustrates the seven cyclic pentagons with side lengths 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, For polygons with an even number n = 2m + 2 of sides, it appears that the maximum number of arcas is obtained if we take 2m + 1 of the sides to be distinet and nearly equal and the last side to be very small. We can then construct 4, solutions with the 2m + 1 sides in the Same orientation as above and the very small side proceeding in the same direction as the majority. We can also construct another 4, Solutions with the very small side proceeding in the opposite direction. Thus we have a total of 24,, solutions, in agreement with the form conjectured above for the formula for the area of cyclic (2m + 2)-gons, 4. AREA OF A CYCLIC PENTAGON. Before getting to the details of the for- mula, I would like to present some indication of the process by which it was discovered. I suspected from the outset, by analogy with the case of triangles and cyclic 4quadrilaterals that, for a cyclic pentagon, 16K? would satisfy a monic polynomial whose coefficients were symmetric polynomials in the squares of the sides of the pentagon. Considerations like those in the previous section led me to believe that the polynomial probably had degree 7. One way to check the conjecture was 10 526 AREAS OF POLYGONS INSCRIBED IN A CIRCLE (June-July© @ Q) ra i799 = 18335 Dingram 1 choose 5 integer-valued but nearly equal sides for which all seven solutions as described above could be realized. 1 then computed, with (high precision) ap- proximate arithmetic, the seven areas K of the seven pentagons described in the preceding construction and then formed the monic polynomial with the corre- sponding seven values of 16K? as roots. If my conjecture was correct, I expected this polynomial to have integer coefficients (or near integer coefficients since the arithmetic was approximate.) It turned out that the coefficients of this polynomial were always nearly integers, as predicted. An claboration of this method for confirming this conjecture also leads to a computation of the correct polynomial assuming it exists. It seemed sensible to express the coefficients of the powers of 16K? in terms of the elementary symmetric functions ot apt es +a, 2a? 2a? aa} +++ aha of a... 42, Thus, taking into account the homogeneity properties of the desired polynomial, it would be of the form w+ (cy? + ega,)u® + (eof + egota + => Ju + where u = 16K? for brevity and c),c3,¢3,... were certain integer constants to be determined, For a given pentagon with integral sides, this polynomial could be computed exactly (rounding the near integer coefficients to the nearest integer.) ‘Also the @;’s were easily found. Thus each such example gave 7 linear equations 1995] AREAS OF POLYGONS INSCRIBED IN A CIRCLE 327satisfied by the ¢/'s, one equation for each power of u. A simple enumeration shows that only 70 unknown c's are involved in the most complicated coefficient (which is the constant term). With 70 examples (and a little luck so that the resulting systems of equations were nonsingular) it was possible to solve for the unknown coefficients. This is how I found the formula in the first place. Many additional checks were available. One interesting check was that the computed c's, which were sure to be rational from the computation method, were in fact all integers. Observe however that even though I was virtually certain that the formula was correct, I really had no proof since the formula was based on approximate arithmetic and a conjecture, At first glance the formula looked like a random polynomial of 153 terms. However a little inspection showed that the polynomial had one very striking feature: every integer coefficient, and some were quite large, factored into very small primes. For example one coefficient was 2”. This suggested that the polynomial had some additional structure. By examining the polynomial carefully and manipulating it with the help of the computer program Mathematica, it turned out that it could be rewritten in a much more compact form as follows. Cyclic Pentagon Area Formula, Suppose that a pentagon inscribed in a circle has side lengths y,...,45, Let 0,.-40 be the elementary symmetric functions in the squares of the sides and let u be 16 times the square of its area. Also define ata tay ts bY ~ 40, +02 03 + ot Then the area of a cyclic pentagon satisfies ur} + Bt} — 1613ty ~ 18utstyts — 270212 = 0. (4) Note that, after substituting the expressions for the 1,’ in (4.1), the first term is monic of degree 7 in w and the other terms have smaller degrees in u. Hence, the formula yields a monic polynomial of degree 7 for u whose coefficients are polynomials in the squares of the lengths of the sides. The largest real root of this polynomial is 16 times the square of the area of the convex pentagon with the ‘given side lengths. Having discovered the Formula (4.1), I did not at first understand its signifi- cance. Some time later Bradley Brock pointed out the extremely interesting fact that the left side of (4.1) resembles the discriminant of a cubic. He was right. It turned out that it is precisely 1/(4u2) times the discriminant with respect to z of the cubic polynomial 234 2ty2? — ule + 2s. Why this should be the case is still a mystery. Also it should be emphasized that the quantities fy, ,f5, which are (essentially) the coefficients of the mystery cubic, arose out of trying to make sense of the computed formula. They must have some separate significance 528. AREAS OF POLYGONS INSCRIBED IN A CIRCLE (June-July‘The vertex quotient formulation together with this observation about the discriminant leads to a relatively simple proof of the formula which is within range of being carried out entirely by hand, (In fact a computer was used.) Recall the vertex quotients q, and the relations (3.1) and 3.2). Let t),....7% be the elementary symmetric functions in the q;’s and note that 75 = a) *"* gs = 1. From G.1) symmetric functions of the «’s are symmetric functions of the q,’s and, from G2), 16K? is a symmetric function in the qs. Hence all the quantities £3, t5, fa fs and w = 16K? can be expressed in terms of 7,,...,74. We easily find 16K? = -R(r, ~ 74) Also a fairly routine but lengthy calculation, which has been omitted, yields fy = 4R4(—10 +3: t= -4RB3r, ry 7275 + 3) 2+ 13 3ta)(71 — 14), 4 ee Cer Note that each of f3, f4, and fs factor as @ product of two linear functions in the 1's, This may be a hint for explaining the meaning of the +’. It is now easily verified that IGR'(94, ~ 29 +75 —9AN(t T+ =H) 2 Dye? — utge +20, = [2 16RE(, ~ 1] AR 1 — 72+ 43 — (71 — TW] Since the cubie has a double root, we may conclude that its discriminant is 0, proving the formula. 5. AREA OF A CYCLIC HEXAGON. Similar methods can be used to find the formula for the area of cyclic hexagons. Strangely the formula can be obtained from the pentagon formula by making a slight change in the definition of the 1's. Cyclic Hexagon Area Formula. Suppose that a hexagon inscribed in a circle has side lengehs ays...,a5 and let 04,...,03 be the first 5 elementary symmetric functions in the squares of the sides and 07, be the product of the six sides and let u be 16 times the square of its area. Also define t3.ts tas ts bY « 1, = Boy + o4f, ~ 160% 1= 8 ha, + Choos, 5 12805 + 322304 = 40; + 0? Then the area of a cyclic hexagon satisfies either ur} +E ~ 16, — WBurstgts — 21022 = 0 (5.1) or the equation obtained by replacing of by its negative, ‘The reader may wonder how the squared area of a given hexagon decides which of these two equations to solve. The answer is to look at the product p=(1~a) (=a), 1995] AREAS OF POLYGONS INSCRIBED IN A CIRCLE 529where q's are the vertex quotients. Since each q, has absolute value 1, and the product of the q's is 1, itis easily verified that p is always real. A squared area is a root of (5.1) when p > 0 and a root of the alternate form if p <0. In particular 6. AREA OF A CYCLIC HEPTAGON. These methods could be used in principle to derive the (degree 38) formula for the cyclic heptagon squared area. However the computations would be of rather heroic proportions, requiring for some of the coefficients the solution of a system of linear equations with 143307 unknowns. Perhaps someone can guess an answer like the compact formulas for the pentagon ‘and hexagon, which might then be provable with a simple argument as above. REFERENCES LH. S. M. Coxeter and S. L, Greitzs, Geometry Reisited, The Mathematical Asocation of ‘Americ, (1967) 2, David P. Robins, Areas of Polygons Insribed in a Cirle, Discrete and Computational Geometry Center for Communications Research Thanet Road Princeton, NJ 08540 robbins(@ cer-p.ida.org PICTURE PUZZLE (from the collection of Paul Halmos) They have the same name. Well, not quite (see page 537.) 530 AREAS OF POLYGONS INSCRIBED IN A CIRCLE [June-July