5

I want to draw an infinite earring, i.e., each circle centerd at $(\frac{1}{n},0)$ with radius $\frac{1}{n}$ for each $n\in \mathbf{N}$. The figure will be the following:

wanted

I have used the following code to do the diagram: 

\documentclass[10pt]{article}
\usepackage{pgf,tikz}
\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture} 
  \foreach \n in {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,...................} 
    \draw (1/\n,0) circle (1/\n);
  \foreach \n in {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,...................}  
    \draw[fill] (1\n,0) circle (0.5pt);
\end{tikzpictute}
\end{document}

But it shows an error.

Improve this question
1
  • 6
    You don't need pgf and it is \end{tikzpicture}
    – touhami
    Feb 28, 2015 at 8:35

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
13

May be better than infinity you fix a large number

 \documentclass{article}
 \usepackage{tikz}
 \begin{document}

 \begin{tikzpicture} 
  \foreach \n in {1,2,...,2000} 
   \draw (1/\n,0) circle (1/\n);
 \end{tikzpicture}
 \end{document}

Edit: we can replace

  \foreach \n in {1,2,...,2000}

by

  \foreach \n in {1,...,2000}

since the step is 1

Improve this answer
1
  • {1,...,140} is enough and it makes it much quicker.
    – LaRiFaRi
    Jul 8, 2015 at 13:34
7

Couldn't resist to add a MetaPost version of this.

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{luamplib}
\begin{document}
\begin{mplibcode}
r = 10cm; % Unit
d = 2r;
beginfig(1);
    for n = 1 upto 1000: draw fullcircle scaled (d/n) shifted (r/n, 0) ; endfor
endfig;
\end{mplibcode}
\end{document}

To be run with LuaLaTeX.

enter image description here

Improve this answer
5
  • Surely you meant to write for n=1 upto infinity: (since you can in MP)!
    – Thruston
    Feb 28, 2015 at 11:45
  • 3
    @Thruston What's the limiting factor in that case? Don't want to keep compiling until off to the nursing home I go!
    – 1010011010
    Feb 28, 2015 at 11:54
  • @Thruston I usually use MetaPost with the double numbersystem, and I lose the habit to use the infinity constant, since I thought that infinity would have a much bigger value than 2^12-1. But I must correct myself: infinity is still equal to 2^12-1=4095,99998… in double mode, despite the fact that MetaPost can handle much bigger numerics then; I've just checked it. It looks like an oversight from MetaPost's developers.
    – Franck Pastor
    Feb 28, 2015 at 12:49
  • 1
    @1010011010 I was just making an in-joke: one of the amusing features of Metafont/Metapost is that it actually defines a constant infinity. An example of Knuth's humour I think, but occasionally it is useful; for example if you have a path p then point infinity of p is always at the far end of p.
    – Thruston
    Feb 28, 2015 at 13:41
  • If you wonder why I've drawn up to 1000 circles, it is because I wanted to make the white point (the last circle), which is left at the origin in most of the other pictures, completely disappear (in appearance I mean). I first try with n = 100, and it was still here. So I went for n = 1000… I confess, I was too lazy to search a more optimal value for n :-)
    – Franck Pastor
    Feb 28, 2015 at 16:07
6

Another solution leveraging nodes' alignment property:

\documentclass[tikz,border=10pt]{standalone}

\pgfkeys{tikz/.cd,
  num of circles/.store in=\numcirc,
  num of circles=100,
  circle initial size/.store in=\circlesize,
  circle initial size=3cm,
}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\foreach \n in {1,...,\numcirc}{
\pgfmathsetmacro\actualsize{\circlesize/\n}
\node[anchor=west,circle,draw,inner sep=\actualsize pt] at (0,0){};
}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

The result:

enter image description here

Improve this answer
2
  • Watch out for the tiny white dot just to the right of the centers of the circles.
    – Benjamin McKay
    Mar 1, 2015 at 13:45
  • @BenjaminMcKay: That's due to the low number of samples used. Just add \begin{tikzpicture}[num of circles=2000] and it will disappear.
    – Claudio Fiandrino
    Mar 1, 2015 at 13:57
4

A PSTricks solution:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{multido}
\usepackage{pstricks}
\usepackage{xfp}

% parameters
\def\circles{100}
\def\radius{3}

\begin{document}

\begin{pspicture}(\fpeval{2*\radius},\fpeval{2*\radius})
  \multido{\i = 1+1}{\circles}{\pscircle(\fpeval{\radius/\i},\radius){\fpeval{\radius/\i}}}
\end{pspicture}

\end{document}

output

...and in case the drawing of the circle perimeters are done with a too thick pen:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{multido}
\usepackage{pstricks}
\usepackage{xfp}

% parameters
\def\circles{100}
\def\radius{3}

\begin{document}

\begin{pspicture}(\fpeval{2*\radius},\fpeval{2*\radius})
  \multido{\i = 1+1}{\circles}{\pscircle[linewidth = 0.5\pslinewidth](\fpeval{\radius/\i},\radius){\fpeval{\radius/\i}}}
\end{pspicture}

\end{document}

output2

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .