On the rigidity of regular bicycle (n,k)-gons

Authors

  • Balázs Csikós

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11575/cdm.v2i1.61885

Abstract

A bicycle (n, k)-gon is an equilateral n-gon whose k-diagonals are equal. In this paper, the order of infinitesimal flexibility of the regular n-gon within the family of bicycle (n, k)-gons is studied. An equation characterizing first order flexible regular bicycle (n, k)-gons were computed by S. Tabachnikov in [7]. This equation was solved by R. Connelly and the author in [4]. S. Tabachnikov has also constructed nontrivial deformations of the regular bicycle (n, k)-gon for certain pairs (n, k). The main result of the paper is that if the regular bicycle (n, k)-gon is first order flexible, but is not among Tabachnikov’s examples of deformable regular bicycle (n, k)-gons, then this bicycle polygon is second order flexible as well, however, it is third order rigid.

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Published

2007-03-08

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Section

Articles