Hints

Think first about the square: you need to work out three things: what the zag length, zig angle, and zag angle should be.

To work out the zag length, just remember that the (blue) zigs have length 100. The (red) zags look as though they are about the same length - so what should their length be? (This is the easy bit...)

The zigzag starts with the horizontal zig and zag along the bottom edge of the square. The zig angle is the angle between this first (horizontal) zig and the second (vertical) zig. What is this angle? The zag angle is the angle between the first (horizontal) zag and the second (vertical) zag, so it's the same as the zig angle. If you know what the three values should be, then try them out below:

If you got that right, you should be able to get the hexagon (6-sided figure) in the same way. Give it a try. If you don't get it right first time, then have some more attempts before asking for help.

You can produce other such polygons in the same way: try to produce an 8-sided figure; a 9-sided one; a 10-sided one; and a 12-sided one. (Why can't you make an 11-sided figure?)

The trick for producing the circle is to realise that it can't be a real circle at all (after all, it's made up of straight lines!): it's another polygon, with so many sides that it looks almost the same as a circle. What's the largest number of sides you can possibly get using the technique you've learned on this page? Try it out.

The ellipse is much harder: there'll be more about this later on.

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