Ford circle

Ford circles for p/q with q from 1 to 20. Circles with q ≤ 10 are labelled as p/q and color-coded according to q. Each circle is tangent to the base line and its neighboring circles. Irreducible fractions with the same denominator have circles of the same size.

In mathematics, a Ford circle is a circle in the Euclidean plane, in a family of circles that are all tangent to the -axis at rational points. For each rational number , expressed in lowest terms, there is a Ford circle whose center is at the point and whose radius is . It is tangent to the -axis at its bottom point, . The two Ford circles for rational numbers and (both in lowest terms) are tangent circles when and otherwise these two circles are disjoint.[1]

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