Small polygons with large area

A polygon is {\em small} if it has unit diameter. The maximal area of a small polygon with a fixed number of sides $n$ is not known when $n$ is even and $n\geq14$. We determine an improved lower bound for the maximal area of a small $n$-gon for this case. The improvement affects the $1/n^3$ … Read more

Tight bounds on the maximal area of small polygons: Improved Mossinghoff polygons

A small polygon is a polygon of unit diameter. The maximal area of a small polygon with $n=2m$ vertices is not known when $m \ge 7$. In this paper, we construct, for each $n=2m$ and $m\ge 3$, a small $n$-gon whose area is the maximal value of a one-variable function. We show that, for all … Read more

The equilateral small octagon of maximal width

A small polygon is a polygon of unit diameter. The maximal width of an equilateral small polygon with $n=2^s$ vertices is not known when $s \ge 3$. This paper solves the first open case and finds the optimal equilateral small octagon. Its width is approximately $3.24\%$ larger than the width of the regular octagon: $\cos(\pi/8)$. … Read more

Tight bounds on the maximal perimeter of convex equilateral small polygons

A small polygon is a polygon of unit diameter. The maximal perimeter of a convex equilateral small polygon with $n=2^s$ vertices is not known when $s \ge 4$. In this paper, we construct a family of convex equilateral small $n$-gons, $n=2^s$ and $s \ge 4$, and show that their perimeters are within $\pi^4/n^4 + O(1/n^5)$ … Read more