Maximum-area polygons

Contrary to intuition, a polygon with a given number of vertices and a given diameter that maximizes its area is not always regular

The applet below finds a maximum-area polygon by Monte-Carlo methods. (This is probably not the best optimization strategy in this case, but it was the easiest and fastest to code. Also, it does not need to make any assumptions about how a maximum area n-gon looks like).

Sometimes you will experience that the simulation generates self-overlapping polygons; in this case, the reported area will not be correct. (Hey, this is just a quick hack!)

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Version: Saturday, 26 April 1997 11:17:34
Wolfgang Schildbach <wschildbach@fermi.franken.de>