Valentines Day Geometry
13 February 2012
It only takes three lines and two circles to form a heart for a ultra geek heart valentine. I found nice examples of constructing hearts through geometry (http://www.mathematische-basteleien.de/heart.htm). I am going to use the simple method 2 in AutoCAD for my valentine heart creation but you could use almost any vector drawing software.
You can use my steps below or watch my quick little video showing me creating the heart.Download Heart.MP4
First we need to start with a circle and I used 2 inch radius. The proportions and dimensions are not really important as you can experiment with sizes and proportions for your own heart creation.
I then copy the circle from the QUA to QUA so the result is two circles connected at their intersection/tangent.
I draw a line from the tangent or Intersection of the two circles. The distance up is not important as we only drew the line up only to create it. We then want to extend the line down roughly 2.5 times the radius of the circle so in my example I extended the line down 5 inches. I could also just draw the line from the intersection down but I like to have an extension beyond the intersection to allow better trimming success in a later step.
Now draw a line from the lower tangent of each circle to the end of the line.
Trim the bottom portions of the circles. Use the TRIM command in AutoCAD and select all the geometry as cutting edges then hit Enter and select the bottom of each circle.
Now you have your heart.
After creating you can solid fill with red and then add some text.
Do you have some geeky valentine creations to share?
Have a Happy Valentines Day!
Shaan