Crop Circles This weekend in the Travel section of ... - Yummy Math

<strong>Crop</strong> <strong>Circles</strong> <br />

<strong>This</strong> <strong>weekend</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> <strong>section</strong> <strong>of</strong> our newspaper, Wiltshire, England was written up as a <br />

dest<strong>in</strong>ation that would be <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g to visit. <br />

Wiltshire County <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> United K<strong>in</strong>gdom is a dest<strong>in</strong>ation you could visit to see <strong>the</strong> ancient sight <strong>of</strong> <br />

Stonehenge 1 (~3000 BC) or crop circles. What’s a crop circle? Glad you asked. <br />

<strong>Crop</strong> circles are <strong>of</strong>ten immense designs that are created or appear <strong>in</strong> fields <strong>of</strong> gra<strong>in</strong> that are <br />

flattened <strong>in</strong>to a pattern. Some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se creations are admittedly man-­‐made by artists and some <br />

have no admitted source <strong>of</strong> creation. There are many <strong>the</strong>ories about <strong>the</strong>ir creation rang<strong>in</strong>g from <br />

alien activity to extreme wea<strong>the</strong>r. <br />

<strong>Crop</strong> circles have been found <strong>in</strong> many countries but 90% <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 10,000 crop circles that have been <br />

reported <strong>in</strong>ternationally have been <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> countryside <strong>of</strong> England. Here are a few. <br />

A 780 ft (240 m) crop circle <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> form <strong>of</strong> a<br />

double (six-sided) triskelion composed <strong>of</strong><br />

409 circles. Milk Hill, England, 200<br />

May 5, 2011 Silbury Hill, Wiltshire<br />

Woodborough Hill <strong>Crop</strong> Circle Formation<br />

Wiltshire, UK August 2000 <br />

Chilbolton, Wiltshire <strong>Crop</strong> Circle, 2008<br />

W<strong>in</strong>dmill Hill <strong>Crop</strong> Circle 25th <strong>of</strong> May,<br />

2009<br />

On 29 July 1996, W<strong>in</strong>dmill Hill near<br />

Avebury, UK

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Bishop Cann<strong>in</strong>gs, Wiltshire - May 24, 2009 <br />

<br />

Letʼs try to draw one.<br />

29 July 2007 <strong>Crop</strong> circle <strong>in</strong> Switzerland<br />

27 June 2000 <strong>in</strong> Bishop Cann<strong>in</strong>gs,<br />

Wiltshire, England<br />

Use a compass and ruler and draw with a pencil that you can thoroughly erase. It helps to have a great eraser.<br />

Weʼll try <strong>the</strong> design above on <strong>the</strong> right.<br />

Draw a circle and divide it <strong>in</strong>to eighths with four l<strong>in</strong>es that pass across and through itʼs center at right and 45 degree<br />

angles.<br />

Connect every o<strong>the</strong>r circle and l<strong>in</strong>e <strong>in</strong>ter<strong>section</strong> po<strong>in</strong>t to create two squares.<br />

Open your compass to give <strong>the</strong> radius <strong>of</strong> our next circles <strong>the</strong> distance from one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> squareʼs vertex to <strong>the</strong> next<br />

squareʼs vertex. Construct 8 circles each centered at one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> squareʼs verticies.

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Create a circle with <strong>the</strong> center at <strong>the</strong> center <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 4 l<strong>in</strong>es and a radius large enough to reach <strong>the</strong> outer po<strong>in</strong>t on<br />

each <strong>of</strong> your small 8 circles.<br />

Decide which regions <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>se various l<strong>in</strong>es that you wish to emphasize. Draw more l<strong>in</strong>es or circles if you like. You<br />

can choose to shade <strong>the</strong>m with highlighter or marker or retrace some <strong>of</strong> your l<strong>in</strong>es with <strong>in</strong>k. To f<strong>in</strong>ish your<br />

construction, erase your pencil l<strong>in</strong>es.<br />

<strong>This</strong> is m<strong>in</strong>e.<br />

Now choose a different image <strong>of</strong> a crop circle and try to devise <strong>in</strong>structions for your classmates on how to create it.<br />

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/<strong>Crop</strong>_circle<br />

http://users.sch.gr/dkastani/abouten.html<br />

1 photo <strong>of</strong> Stonehenge;<br />

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