Maximal Areas of Reuleaux Polygons

Abstract

In this paper we provide new proofs of some interesting results of Firey [2] on isoperimetric ratios of Reuleaux polygons. Recall that a Reuleaux polygon is a plane convex set of constant width whose boundary consists of a finite (odd) number of circular arcs. Equivalently, it is the intersection of a finite number of suitably chosen congruent discs. For more details, see [1, p. 128].If a Reuleaux polygon has n sides (arcs) of positive length (where n is odd and ≥ 3), we will refer to it as a Reuleaux n-gon, or sometimes just as an n-gon. If all of the sides are equal, it is termed a regular n-gon.