Polykoch (Kontinued)

In “Polykoch!”, I looked at variants on the famous Koch snowflake, which is created by erecting new triangles on the sides of an equilaternal triangle, like this:

Koch snowflake #1


Koch snowflake #2


Koch snowflake #3


Koch snowflake #4


Koch snowflake #5


Koch snowflake #6


Koch snowflake #7


Koch snowflake (animated)


One variant is simple: the new triangles move inward rather than outward:

Inverted Koch snowflake #1


Inverted Koch snowflake #2


Inverted Koch snowflake #3


Inverted Koch snowflake #4


Inverted Koch snowflake #5


Inverted Koch snowflake #6


Inverted Koch snowflake #7


Inverted Koch snowflake (animated)


Or you can alternate between moving the new triangles inward and outward. When they always move outward and have sides 1/5 the length of the sides of the original triangle, the snowflake looks like this:


When they move inward, then always outward, the snowflake looks like this:


And so on:




Now here’s a Koch square with its new squares moving inward:

Inverted Koch square #1


Inverted Koch square #2


Inverted Koch square #3


Inverted Koch square #4


Inverted Koch square #5


Inverted Koch square #6


Inverted Koch square (animated)


And here’s a pentagon with squares moving inwards on its sides:

Pentagon with squares #1


Pentagon with squares #2


Pentagon with squares #3


Pentagon with squares #4


Pentagon with squares #5


Pentagon with squares #6


Pentagon with squares (animated)


And finally, an octagon with hexagons on its sides. First the hexagons move outward, then inward, then outward, then inward, then outward:

Octagon with hexagons #1


Octagon with hexagons #2


Octagon with hexagons #3


Octagon with hexagons #4


Octagon with hexagons #5


Octagon with hexagons (animated)


Polykoch!

This is how you form the famous Koch snowflake, in which at each stage you erect a new triangle on the middle of each line whose sides are 1/3 the length of the line:

Koch snowflake #1


Koch snowflake #2


Koch snowflake #3


Koch snowflake #4


Koch snowflake #5


Koch snowflake #6


Koch snowflake #7


Koch snowflake (animated)


Here’s a variant of the Koch snowflake, with new mid-triangles whose sides are 1/2 the length of the lines:

Koch snowflake (1/2 side) #1


Koch snowflake (1/2 side) #2


Stage #3


Stage #4


Stage #5


Stage #6


Stage #7


Stage #8


Koch snowflake (1/2 side) (animated)


But why stop at triangles? This is a Koch square, in which at each stage you erect a new 1/3 square on the middle of each line:

Koch square #1


Koch square #2


Koch square #3


Koch square #4


Koch square #5


Koch square #6


Koch square (animated)


And a Koch pentagon, in which at each stage you erect a pentagon on the middle of each line whose sides are 1 – (1/φ^2 * 2) = 0·236067977… the length of the line (I used 55/144 as an approximation of 1/φ^2):

Koch pentagon (side 55/144) #1


Koch pentagon #2


Koch pentagon #3


Koch pentagon #4


Koch pentagon #5


Koch pentagon #6


Koch pentagon (animated)


In this close-up, you can see how precisely the sprouting pentagons kiss at each stage:

Koch pentagon (close-up) #1


Koch pentagon (close-up) #2


Koch pentagon (close-up) #3


Koch pentagon (close-up) #4


Koch pentagon (close-up) #5


Koch pentagon (close-up) #6


Koch pentagon (close-up) (animated)