Blog Posts by Jim Tolpin
What makes a right angle right?
In the last post, we saw how the triplet works its magic to allow three segmented line lengths to come together to form a right angle. When the…
The Tricky Triplet
If you think back to your days in what used to be called “Grammar School”, you may remember old Mr. Hammersmacker (or was it Miss Hellena Handbasket?) droning…
Sector Secrets
The theory and construction of a sector is covered in both our books, though in the softcover “By Hound and Eye”…
The Power of Geo-Metron
Or what we call earth-measure today: Geometry. This was man’s most ancient field of study leading to an understanding of the primary structure--dare we say truth--of the patterns…
Addendum to Post “Geometry Vs Algebra Smack down”
An attentive reader asked: “What if you wanted to lay out the centers of the slats instead of their edges”. A great question as it is actually often…
That Snappy Sector
Another primary use of the sector is to quickly find or create a whole number proportional relationship between two dimensions--say the width of a box to its height.…
Algebra vs. Geometry Smackdown
[caption id="attachment_120" align="alignleft" width="736"] Ouch![/caption] So how do you go about evenly spacing out the slats on a design such as a headboard (as the example shown…
Step Stool Redux
The Humble Step Stool strikes again (or here's what woke me up at 4am this morning): The sequence of ratios embedded in my well-worn step stool project examples…
Going ‘Round the Bend
This sketch shows an old boatbuilding scheme for figuring out how tight (used to be called “quick”) a certain thickness of wood will bend. (The wood is usually…
