This cut and folded tan paper model is one of several in which A. Harry Wheeler illustrated properties of polar spherical triangles. A line perpendicular to the plane of a great circle of a sphere intersects the sphere in two points called poles (for example, on the earth, the great circle of the equator has poles the North Pole and South Pole). In the model, the outer spherical triangle has vertices labeled A, B, and C. Vertices of the inner spherical triangle are A2, B2, and C2. A is the pole nearest A2 of the great circle of the sphere that includes the arc B2 C2. B is the pole nearest B2 of the great circle that includes the arc A2C2. C is the pole nearest C2 of the great circle that includes arc A2B2. Also, spherical triangle A2B2C2 is the polar triangle of spherical triangle ABC (A2 is the pole nearest A of a great circle through BC and so forth).
The model is among those Wheeler dubbed collapsible.
Reference:
G. van Brummelen, Heavenly Mathematics: The Forgotten Art of Spherical Trigonometry, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013.
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