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Any three circles hide a straight line. Here's a demo that shows it. [1]

['Mark Frauenfelder']

Date: 2026-08-31  

I saw a video about Monge's theorem on Instagram and thought it would be fun to vibe code an interactive demo.

Monge's theorem states that given any three circles, you can draw a line tangent to each pair. Those tangent lines will cross at a point. You will have three crossing points, and they will always lie on a single straight line.

There is a proof involved, but I haven't had time to understand it yet. It's just fun to play with this demonstration and marvel at the elegance of math.

More about math: Boing Boing has covered the hairy ball theorem, the 17-sided shape a mathematician wanted on his tombstone, and a game that draws patterns out of random dice rolls.

How I use AI. Dictated into Whisper Memos. Pangram: rough draft, final draft.

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2026/08/31/fountain-pen-monge-theorem.html

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