Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Laying out a 5 point star???

This is probably an easy one, but I don't know the answer for sure. Are the points of a 5 point star, such as the army emblem, equi-distant on a circle connecting the points. Any easy way to make one with a compass? Specifically, I am laying tile in my reloading room, and am going to lay a 4 x 6 foot Texas Flag in the center of the floor. And I need to cut tile to make a 5 point star with a circle 18 inches in diameter on the points. Any help for a poor geometry student that forgot what little he knew would be appreciated. Thanks CAT

Using a compass, lay the points at 0, 72, 144, 216, and 288.
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<br>Rick

here is how it is done: find the diameter of your circle, 18" multply by 3.14 this equals 56.52" now devide by 5 and you get 11.304". Draw an 18" circle with a compas or divider. next set compass or divider at just less than 11 5/16. place points on circle and mark points work your way around circle making 5 points. draw lines accross circle to each point 180 degrees appart. you will now have a perfect star. You can change the porportions of the star by simply drawing a line from the starpoint to the intersection (where the "V"come together) make line go through measure from intersectionout make point on this line and bring legs of star to this point. this will change shape of star.
<br>I have sent 15 years a ceramic tile setter and will give you a tip or two if you need them. One that is invaluable is mark tile with aluminium, use aluminium as a pencil it will not rub off like pencil or marker. Of course if you are using other material don't worry about the marker.
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<br>Bullwnkl.

Bullwnkl:
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<br>Thanks, I've had a good bit of tile laid over the years, but this is my first effort doing it myself. Out here in the sticks, I don't know anyone that is good at it, plus this is a room I had built onto my shop/barn for reloading, etc, 15x20 and I figured it would be a good learning experience, where if I screwed up, it would not be the end of the world. Am using all ceramic tile, 8x8s, laid on concrete, that I accumulated over the years for such an occasion.
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<br>Thanks for the aluminum tip, never have read that one before. I've got a motor driver tile cutter, Felker, I think, without looking, and that sure helps.
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<br>Not that anyone cares but me, but am using kind of a brownish tan tile for most of it, coming in 2 feet off the walls, and making a rectangle out of one row of bright red, then am going to put a 6x4 Texas Flag in the middle. I though about the American Flag, but I would grow old cutting 50 stars and 13 stripes out. The layout of the Texas Flag is really quite easy, and proportional. Again, thanks for the reply. CAT

Cat,'scuse me,but I'm thinking- and I dont have one to look at - that a Texas star is pointed at :0 for the top,90 and 270 for sides,and the two lower points are 60 degrees from the 90 and 270 points respectivly,which also leaves them 60 degrees apart.
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<br>Did I miss the question?

Gene a five pointed star would be 72 degrees appart from point to point for a true star. A six pointed star will be 60 degrees. The star in the state flag of Texas may be of a combination of geometric angles, this I do not know. However if one devides 60 into 360 one gets 6. This is a simple way to devide a circle into 6 equal segments: set dividers at radius and put mark on circle proceed to walk dividers around circumfrance of circle with dividers set at length of radius and you will get 60 degree segments, all six of them. I would be interested to know how the star in question is truly laid out if it is not a true star as it seem to be very proportionat. Just curious.
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<br>Bullwnkl.

The star in question is a true five point star as you described. If one looks at the flag, the star could be rotated so that any of the points could be the one pointing up and the shape remains the same.
<br>http://www.50states.com/flag/txflag.htm

gene it is a Texas star. Not a Star of David. Not yet any way. Course if it keeps on like it is going we can forget it and use the damn buzzard eating a worm for a center piece.
<br>BCR

Bullwinkle,type in "texas" on your address bar.I dont know what all else comes up on the screen,but one thing you will see is the great seal of Texas that all official government stuff is stamped with. If you are a notary public in Texas,it is your seal.I submit that that makes it THE Texas star.
<br>You will see that the points are not equidistant,they are just as I described.
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<br>The star of david is a six sided star made by superimposing one perfect triangle over another.
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<br>Now Cat,you just look at that seal,lay the star out like I said for I am an old sheet metal layout man and an older Texan!
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<br>I been handed enough divorce papers to know what that damn seal looks like!
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<br>No apologies necessary,gentlemen.

I don't know about the star on the official seal, but the star on the flag is a standard five point star. If you look at the link in my above post you will see the flag. The points are an equal distance apart. The side points do go strait out, but they are not at 90 and 270 degrees in respect to the center of the star.

Gene:
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<br>I hate to disagree with my hog hunting mentor but I am going to use the official TEXAS description for the dimensions of the flag which is as follows: (note the term, "regular 5 point star")
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<br>"The official description of the Texas flag, which specifies the exact proportions of each of its elements, was only recently adopted by the state legislature. Accordingly,
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<br>"The state flag consists of a rectangle with a width to length ratio of two to three containing: (1) a blue vertical stripe one-third the entire length of the flag wide, and two equal horizontal stripes, the upper stripe white, the lower red, each two-thirds the entire length of the flag long; and (2) a white, regular five-pointed star in the center of the blue stripe, oriented so that one point faces upward, and of such a size that the diameter of a circle passing through the five points of the star is equal to three-fourths the width of the blue stripe."
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Does that mean I gotta take all them ex wives back seeing as the State used the wrong star on the papers?

I would prefer to think that TEXAS is so grand and varied that it deserves different stars for different purposes.
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<br>Just tell those exes to send your money back. That should work.

Gee, I thought someone else would surely give you the right answer by now! But the two closest answers were both wrong -- only slightly wrong, but enough to be at least confusing.
<br>A: You'd use a protractor, not a compass, to lay-out points at five 72� angles (at 0�, 72�, 144�, 216�, and 288� around the circle). And not everybody has a protractor close at hand, so I didn't assume that you'd find this answer all that helpful.
<br>B: Dividing the circumference into five arcs requires measuring over the curve, not in a straight line. Knowing the straight-line distance from point to point on the circle is much more useful, so that's what I set-out to figger for you. I figured this out earlier but didn't have the most trusted tables of trig functions handy until tonight (to confirm my figgerin').
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<br>Draw your 18-inch circle with a compass (9-inch radius). Mark the center and draw a vertical line from the center to the top of the circle (wherever it is that you want the top of your star to be.)
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<br>Now set your compass points 10-37/64 inches apart (10.58 inches if you have a scale laid-off in hundredths). Set the point of your compass where the vertical line crosses the top of the circle and with the other side of the compass, strike a small arc across the circle to either side of top dead-center. This gives you the right and left upper points of the star, on both sides of the top point.
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<br>Now set the point of your compass on first one, then the other of the two upper side points you've just located and strike another short arc (twice) across the lower parts of the circle.
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<br>You've now located where all five points of the star touch the circle. Draw a straight line from each point PAST THE NEXT POINT to the point 144� across the circle. Five of these straight lines, each passing close around but not through the center, complete the star -- with fairly precise geometry.
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<br>Here's how the math goes, for anybody who wants to check my figgerin'.
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<br>Each angle between points (from the center of the circle to the circumference of the circle) is 72� and comprises two right triangles with apex angles of 36�. The opposite side of each of these right triangles is exactly half the distance between the points of the star. The sine of 36� (0.58779) equals the opposite side of the triangle (to be determined) divided by the hypotenuse of the triangle (the radius of the 18-inch circle, 9 inches.)
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<br>So -- if I've figgered right -- the short side of each right triangle is 5.29011 inches, and since this is exactly half the STRAIGHT-LINE distance between points, the points are 10.58022 inches apart (on a straight line, not around the curve).
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<br>Now one of you math whizzes tell the rest of us whether I got it right -- and if I didn't, tell us what's right here. (I escaped from my sophomore trigonometry course at Auburn with a charity pass in 1957, so I have NO confidence in the accuracy of either my memory or my figgerin'.)

Get a picture of the darned thing, take it to a copy shop, and blow it up to fit an 18 inch circle. Make a half dozen copies in case you damage some. You have a template. If necessary (because of size) mark the original with index marks and do your copies half at a time, then line up the index marks on the finish copy. Could do the same thing with an overhead projector at the local school or wherever, I suppose, also.
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<br>I did the copy shop bit with my topo hunting maps for the areas I hunt. I now have 2" = 1/2 mile maps that I can write notes on, post yardages, etc. In color. Laminated. I'm working on a deal for arial photos as well. I'm starting to like some aspects of the technology age!

Ken, I've worked with aircraft drawings a good part of my life and the engineers never did the math for us.They simply call out "5 equal spaces". You can set the compass points appx.,strike the arcs,divide - or multiply- the error by 5,try again and probably nail it on the third or fourth try.Less time than it takes to do the math.When you try to set compass points with a scale in hundredths,you aint gonna hit it the first time anyhow.you will come up short or long by some amount and have to adjust for it.
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<br>Despite what the official star is,a lot of flag designs have the lone star just like the seal has,but CAT has to have it official.grin