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Steiner Chain / Porism

Tangent circles between two parent circles

Closed Chain: 6 circles
6 circles
30%
40%
0.00
Gap at Close
0.00
Sum of Radii
Steiner's Porism: If a closed chain exists, infinitely many exist!

About Steiner Chains

A Steiner chain is a sequence of circles, each tangent to two fixed "parent" circles and to its neighbors in the chain.

Steiner's Porism: If a closed chain of n circles exists for two parent circles, then infinitely many closed n-chains exist—you can start the chain anywhere!

This is proven by inversion: the configuration maps to concentric circles where symmetry makes the result obvious.