TikZ Challenge 1 - Geometrical Diagram

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Discussion Overview

This thread presents a challenge for participants to create and submit impressive or interesting geometrical diagrams using TikZ. The focus is on creativity and the use of various TikZ features, with submissions allowed over a two-week period.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant proposes a basic triangle diagram that showcases naming coordinates, drawing a closed polygon, and embellishing with properties such as color and thickness.
  • Another submission features a triangle with altitudes intersecting at the orthocenter, including a title to describe the diagram's significance.
  • A different participant illustrates a direction field for a magnetic dipole, utilizing axis labels, nested loops, and parametric values for line segments.
  • Another submission demonstrates foundational trigonometry concepts, including the construction of a coordinate system, grid, and the use of colors and labels.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants have submitted various diagrams showcasing different aspects of TikZ, but there is no consensus on which submission is the best or prettiest, as voting is to take place after the submission period.

Contextual Notes

Submissions are limited to one picture per participant, and changes to the pictures after submission are not allowed, which may affect the clarity of some diagrams.

Who May Find This Useful

Individuals interested in LaTeX, TikZ, geometry, and creative diagramming may find this thread useful for inspiration and techniques in creating geometrical diagrams.

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Who can make the most impressive, interesting, or pretty TikZ picture?

This first challenge is to create a geometrical diagram, like a triangle, that is somehow interesting or impressive.
We might make it a very complicated figure, or an 'impossible' figure, or use pretty TikZ embellishments, or use 'neat' $\LaTeX$ features, or... well... that's up to you!
If it's not immediately obvious, please mention what makes your picture special.

Please post your submission in this thread.
This thread will be closed after 2 weeks.
After that we will have 2 weeks to vote on what we think is the 'best' or 'prettiest' TikZ picture.

Only 1 submission of a picture is allowed, and it is not allowed to change the picture after submission.
It is allowed to add more information later to clarify what makes the picture special.
Any change to the picture itself will disqualify it.
See http://mathhelpboards.com/tikz-pictures-63/tikz-announcement-22140.html for more information on how to create and post TikZ pictures.
To help create pictures we can use this http://35.164.211.156/tikz/tikzlive.html.
 
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To start things off, here is my submission:
\begin{tikzpicture}[blue]
\coordinate (A) at (0,0);
\coordinate (B) at (4,0);
\coordinate (C) at (4,3);
\draw[blue, ultra thick] (A) -- (B) -- (C) -- cycle;
\path (A) node[below left] {A} -- (B) node[below right] {B} -- (C) node[above] {C};
\path (A) -- node[below] {c} (B) -- node
{a} (C) -- node[above left] {b} (A);
\path (A) node[above right, xshift=12] {$\alpha$};
\draw[thick] (B) rectangle +(-0.4,0.4);
\draw[thick] (A) +(1,0) arc (0:atan(3/4):1);
\end{tikzpicture}

This picture is special because it's a basic shape that showcases:
  1. Naming coordinates.
  2. Drawing a closed polygon.
  3. Embellishing with properties (for color and thickness).
  4. Adding labels next to nodes and next to lines.
  5. Specifying relative coordinates.
  6. Drawing an arc.
  7. Using a mathematical function (for the angle of the arc).
 
Last edited:
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=2]
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\coordinate (A) at (0,0);
\coordinate (B) at (1,2.5);
\coordinate (C) at (4,0);
\draw (A) -- (B) -- (C) -- cycle;
\draw (B) -- ($(A)!(B)!(C)$) ++(90:0.2) -- ++(0:0.2) -- +(-90:0.2);
\draw (A) -- ($(B)!(A)!(C)$) ++(-39.806:0.2) -- ++(50.194:-0.2) -- +(-39.806:-0.2);
\draw (C) -- ($(A)!(C)!(B)$) ++(68.2:-0.2) -- ++(-21.8:0.2) -- +(68.2:0.2);
\draw (A) node
{$A$} -- (B) node[above]{$B$}node[midway,above]{$c\quad$} -- (C)node
{$C$}node[midway,above]{$\quad a$} -- (A)node[midway,below]{$b$};
\node[align=center,font=\bfseries, yshift=2em] (title)
at (current bounding box.north)
{An illustration of the altitudes of a triangle, \\ intersecting at a single point called the orthocenter};
\end{tikzpicture}

This TikZ diagram includes a title.​
 
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[<->][red] (-5.5,0) -- (5.5,0) node
{$x$};
\draw[<->][red] (0,-5.5) -- (0,5.5) node[above] {$y$};
\foreach \x in {-5,-4.5,...,-0.5,0.5,1,...,5}
{
\foreach \y in {-5,-4.5,...,-0.5,0.5,1,...,5}
{
\def \angle {atan((3*\x*\y)/(2*(\x)^2-(\y)^2))};
\draw[thick,blue] ({\x + 0.1*cos(\angle)},{\y + 0.1*sin(\angle)}) -- ({\x + 0.1*cos(\angle + 180)},{\y + 0.1*sin(\angle + 180)});
}
}
\end{tikzpicture}

This TikZ diagram illustrates a direction field for a magnetic dipole, and utilizes the following:

  • Nodes for the axis labels.
  • Nested foreach loops.
  • The definition of an angle (slope) based on coordinates.
  • Parametric values for the endpoints of line segments.
 
[TIKZ][scale=3]
\draw[step=.5cm, gray, very thin] (-1.2,-1.2) grid (1.2,1.2);
\filldraw[fill=green!20,draw=green!50!black] (0,0) -- (3mm,0mm) arc (0:30:3mm) -- cycle;
\draw[->] (-1.25,0) -- (1.25,0) coordinate (x axis);
\draw[->] (0,-1.25) -- (0,1.25) coordinate (y axis);
\draw (0,0) circle (1cm);
\draw[very thick,red] (30:1cm) -- node[left,fill=white] {$\sin \alpha$} (30:1cm |- x axis);
\draw[very thick,blue] (30:1cm |- x axis) -- node[below=2pt,fill=white] {$\cos \alpha$} (0,0);
\draw (0,0) -- (30:1cm);
\foreach \x/\xtext in {-1, -0.5/-\frac{1}{2}, 1}
\draw (\x cm,1pt) -- (\x cm,-1pt) node[anchor=north,fill=white] {$\xtext$};
\foreach \y/\ytext in {-1, -0.5/-\frac{1}{2}, 0.5/\frac{1}{2}, 1}
\draw (1pt,\y cm) -- (-1pt,\y cm) node[anchor=east,fill=white] {$\ytext$};
[/TIKZ]

This TikZ picture is special, because it demonstrates:
- The very foundation of trigonometry
- Construction of a coordinate system
- Construction of a grid
- Coloring of line segments
- The making of tick labels
- How to fill in with colors
- How to use different line thickness
- How to position labels
 
Thank you everyone for your submissions!

I've created a http://mathhelpboards.com/challenge-questions-puzzles-28/tikz-challenge-1-voting-22273.html, which will be open for 2 weeks.
Please everyone, give your vote!

Closing this thread.
 

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