Abstract
Thirteen simple closed geodesics are found in the lemniscate. Among these are nine “mirrors”—geodesics of reflection symmetry—which generate the full octahedral group and determine a triangulation of the lemniscate as a disdyakis dodecahedron. New visualizations of the lemniscate are presented.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
A.B. Basset, An Elementary Treatise on Cubic and Quartic Curves, Merchant Books, 2007. (original copyright, 1901)
E. Brieskorn and H. Knörrer, Plane Algebraic Curves, Birkhäuser, 1986.
Calini Annalisa, Langer Joel: Schwarz reflection geometry I: continuous iteration of reflection. Math. Z. 244, 775–804 (2003)
Philip J. Davis, The Schwarz Function and its Applications, The Carus Mathematical Monographs, No. 17, The Mathematical Association of America, 1974.
Hilton H.: Plane Algebraic Curves, second edition. Oxford University Press, London (1932)
G. Jones and D. Singerman, Complex Functions an algebraic and geometric viewpoint, Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Felix Klein, The icosahdron and the solution of equations of the fifth degree, Dover Publications, 1956.
Langer Joel, Singer David: Foci and foliations of real algebraic curves. Milan J. Math. 75(1), 225–271 (2007)
Joel Langer and David Singer, When is a curve an octahedron?, Amer. Math. Monthly (to appear).
Ottmar Loos, Symmetric Spaces I: General Theory, W. A. Benjamin, Inc. (1969).
Ness Linda: Curvature on algebraic plane curves. I. Compositio Mathematica 35, 57–63 (1977)
Victor Prasolov and Yuri Solovyev, Elliptic Functions and Elliptic Integrals, Translations of Mathematical Monographs, Vol. 170, 1997. American Mathematical Society.
Rosen M.: Abel’s theorem on the lemniscate. Amer. Math. Monthly 88, 387–395 (1981)
Salmon George: A Treatise on the Higher Plane Curves, Third Edition. G. E. Stechert & Co., New York (1934)
J. Stillwell, Mathematics and Its History, 2nd ed., Springer, 2002.
C. Zwikker, The Advanced Geometry of Plane Curves and their Applications, Dover Publications, 1963.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Langer, J.C., Singer, D.A. Reflections on the Lemniscate of Bernoulli: The Forty-Eight Faces of a Mathematical Gem. Milan J. Math. 78, 643–682 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00032-010-0124-5
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00032-010-0124-5