Morley's Miracle
J. Conway's proof

John Conway (the inventor of the Game of Life) of Princeton University floated his proof on the geomtery.puzzles newsgroup in 1995. Following is his message (I only replaced his text-based graphics with something more decent and changed his notations to confirm with those I use in other proofs.)

I have the undisputedly simplest proof of Morley's Trisector Theorem. Here it is:

Let your triangle have angles 3a, 3b, 3c and let x* mean x +  60°, so that a + b + c = 0*. Then triangles with angles

 0*,0*,0* 
a,b*,c* a*,b,c* a*,b*,c
a**,b,c a,b**,c a,b,c**

exist abstractly, since in every case the angle-sum is 180°. Build them on a scale defined as follows:

0*,0*,0*-this is equilateral - make it have edge 1
a,b*,c*-make the edge joining the angles b* and c* have length 1
-similarly for a*,b,c* and a*,b*,c
a**,b,c (and the other two like it)-let me draw this one:

Let the angles at B, P, C be b, a**, c, and draw lines from P cutting BC at angle a* in the two senses, so forming an isosceles triangle PYZ. Choose the scale so that PY and PZ are both 1.

Now just fit all these 7 triangles together! They'll form a figure like:-

(in which the points X,Y should really be omitted). The points Y,Z are what I meant.

To make it a bit more clear, let me say that the angles of ΔBPR are b (at B), c* (at P), a* (at R).

Why do they all fit together? Well, at each internal vertex, the angles add up to 360°, as you'll easily check. And two coincident edges have either both been declared to have length 1, or are like the common edge BP of triangles BPR and BPC.

But ΔBPR is congruent to the subtriangle BPZ of ΔBPC, since PR = PZ = 1, ∠PBR = ∠PBZ = b, and ∠BRP = ∠BZP = a*.

So the figure formed by these 7 triangles is similar to the one you get by trisecting the angles of your given triangle, and therefore in that triangle the middle subtriangle must also be equilateral.

     John Conway


Morley's Miracle

  1. J.Conway's proof
  2. D. J. Newman's proof
  3. Bankoff's proof
  4. B. Bollobás' proof
  5. Another proof
  6. Nikos Dergiades' proof
  7. G. Zsolt Kiss' proof
  8. M. T. Naraniengar's proof
  9. Doodling and Miracles
  10. Morley's Pursuit of Incidence
  11. Lines, Circles and Beyond
  12. On Motivation and Understanding
  13. Bankoff's conundrum
  14. Of Looking and Seeing
  15. Morley's Redux and More, Alain Connes' proof
  16. An Unexpected Variant
  17. Proof by B. Stonebridge and B. Millar
  18. Proof by B. Stonebridge
  19. Proof by Nolan L Aljaddou
  20. Proof by Roger Smyth
  21. Proof by H. D. Grossman
  22. Proof by R. J. Webster
  23. Proof by H. Shutrick

|Contact| |Front page| |Contents| |Geometry| |Store|

Copyright © 1996-2012 Alexander Bogomolny

 40601336

A math books store at a unique math study site. Shopping at the store helps maintain the site. Thank you.
Sites for teachers
Sites for parents
Terms of use
Awards
Interactive Activities

CTK Exchange
CTK Wiki Math
CTK Insights - a blog
Math Help
Games & Puzzles
What Is What
Arithmetic
Algebra
Geometry
Probability
Outline Mathematics
Make an Identity
Book Reviews
Stories for Young
Eye Opener
Analog Gadgets
Inventor's Paradox
Did you know?...
Proofs
Math as Language
Things Impossible
Visual Illusions
My Logo
Math Poll
Cut The Knot!
MSET99 Talk
Old and nice bookstore
Other Math sites
Front Page
Movie shortcuts
Personal info
Privacy Policy

Guest book
News sites

Recommend this site

Sites for parents

Education & Parenting

Search:
Keywords:

Google
Web CTK
Supported by
3wVentures