Conway's nightmare: Brahmagupta and butterflies
Brahmagupta's formula calculates the area of a cyclic quadrilateral from the length of its edges. A quite similar formula for triangles is known as Heron's formula. Since long a pure geometric proof for Heron's formula is known, but not for the formula of Brahmagupta. To find such a proof was a dream of John Conway. In the same issue as the underlying one, \textit{S. Vandervelde} [Math. Intell. 45, No. 1, 19--21 (2023; Zbl 1525.51012)] presents such a proof and here the author adds a second one. This time the idea comes from a proof the Pythagorean theorem, that first notes that after fixing the angles of a right triangle its area is proportional to the square of the hypotenuse. When the altitude onto the hypotenuse is drawn the triangle becomes the union of two smaller triangles with same angles. Then adding up the area and cancelling the proportional constants gives the Pythagorean theorem. From this proof the author takes the operation morphing, i.e. to change the size / position but not to change the angles. The second operation needed is the recutting of a quadrilateral: cut along a diagonal and reverse one triangle. To prove Brahmagupta's formula, the author studies the quotient \(C = A^2 / B^2\) combining the area \(A\) of the quadrilateral and the value \(B\) given by Brahmagupta's formula. On the space \(X\) of cyclic quadrilaterals the recutting obviously does not change this quotient. Neither does the morphing change \(C\) as the author shows by embedding the lines of the edges into a suitable coordinate system and comparing the degrees of the resulting polynomials on the cyclic quadrilateral and non-convex butterflies. This gives that \(C\) is constant on \(X\). Furthermore \(X\) contains squares, and thus \(C = 1\). In the final section, the author discusses the connection of his proof with the idea of fiber bundles (regarding each cyclic quadrilateral as fiber) and control-theory-flavored proofs of ergodicity, e.g. a result of \textit{E. Hopf} [Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 77, 863--877 (1971; Zbl 0227.53003)] on geodesic flows on a hyperbolic surface.
- Conway's dream
- Brahmagupta's derivation of the area of a cyclic quadrilateral
- Brahmagupta formula for cyclic quadrilaterials in the hyperbolic plane
- From Brahmagupta to Euler: on the formula for the area of a cyclic quadrilateral
- On a flawed, 16th-century derivation of Brahmagupta's formula for the area of a cyclic quadrilateral
- A highway from Heron to Brahmagupta
- Brahmagupta's derivation of the area of a cyclic quadrilateral
- Ergodic theory and the geodesic flow on surfaces of constant negative curvature
- scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1260617 (Why is no real title available?)
- On the areas of cyclic and semicyclic polygons
- The area of cyclic polygons: recent progress on Robbins' conjectures
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