Geometric constructibility of polygons lying on a circular arc

Abstract: For a positive integer

n

, an

n

-sided polygon lying on a circular arc or, shortly, an

n

-fan is a sequence of

n + 1

points on a circle going counterclockwise such that the "total rotation"

d e l t a

from the first point to the last one is at most

2 p i

. We prove that for

n g e q 3

, the

n

-fan cannot be constructed with straightedge and compass in general from its central angle

d e l t a

and its central distances, which are the distances of the edges from the center of the circle. Also, we prove that for each fixed

d e l t a

in the interval

(0, 2 p i]

and for every

n g e q 5

, there exists a concrete

n

-fan with central angle

d e l t a

that is not constructible from its central distances and

d e l t a

. The present paper generalizes some earlier results published by the second author and 'A. Kunos on the particular cases

d e l t a = 2 p i

and

d e l t a = p i

.

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