Stars

There are many ways to link a multiplicity of points. Consider a number of points all at the same distance d from an original point. If you link them all in sequence you will get a polygon approximating a circle if there are enough points spaced out regularly along that circumference. If you link them alternatingly, you get a cycloid if there are many of them and a star if there are few enough.

This is one of those odd thoughts one gets as one sits along the Bay of Bengal and thinks of all the treachery and romance, the arms-trading and the gem-trading that these shores have seen. Tragedy and pain, piracy and profit, war and the elements of a fantasy novel. I think I might come back here after all, one day when I am retired and can finally write the book I have been thinking of all along.

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Note: Thanks, NBL, for that comment... I definitely meant cycloid (as written), of the spirograph type. Sorry, wasn't clear enough. A cardioid (means 'heart-shaped thing') has only one cusp.