The circle game

Alonso, Alicia (1); Prieto, Manuel (2); Goñi, Félix M. (3)

Publication year:

2024

Publication place:

Donostia

Characteristics:

BIBLID [0212-7016; eISSN: 2952-4180 (2024), 69, 2] - Reccep.: 2024-07-01 - Acept.: 2024-09-02

DOI:

http://doi.org/10.61879/riev692zkia202402

ISSN:

0212-7016; eISSN: 2952-4180

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Summary

This essay is devoted to a multidisciplinary analysis of the circle (and the related figures sphere and cylinder) in Nature, the Arts and the Sciences. The figures are first defined in terms of Euclidean Geometry. Then follows a historical consideration of the shapes of the celestial bodies, and of the Universe itself, and the surprising formal parallelism of the Copernican cosmos and Bohr’s atomic structure. The relevance of the circle in Mysticism, Religion and the para-sciences is discussed. Specific sections are devoted to the circle in Mechanics, Art, Architecture and Biology. Abundant graphical examples are provided. A closing discussion deals with the difficulties in explaining in a rational way the obvious attraction felt by humans along the ages for these deceptively simple shapes.

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