Geometry

Geometry symbols and meanings

Figures that generate the next figure. The names are often younger than the drawings.

12 marks in the lexicon. A symbol can sit in more than one tradition. The page says which use is which.

• Vesica piscisTwo equal circles, each through the other’s center. A third shape appears.
• Flower of lifeEvery circle born on the edge of another.
• Seed of lifeSeven circles: a center, and the ring that exhausts it.
• InfinityA typesetter’s sign that escaped into metaphysics.
• Golden ratioA cut where the whole stands to the larger part as that part stands to the smaller.
• PiHow many diameters fit around a circle. The letter came later, from a printer’s book.
• EqualsTwo parallels of one length, because nothing is more equal than that.
• Radical signThe check that asks what number, times itself, makes this one.
• ThereforeThe hinge between a reason and the line that follows.
• AlephAn infinity with a size. Not the same as an infinity you pray to.
• Möbius stripA strip with a half-twist. One side. One edge. A dated invention.
• DeltaA triangle that is a letter. Change, in a mathematician’s hand.