Draw an Oval Shape
An oval has a special geometric property we can use to draw perfect ovals. An oval consists of all points that have the same sum of distance to two separate points. (For a circle both points are the same, the center of the circle.)
Steps
- Place two pins or nails into the material to be drawn on. The spot between them will be the center of your oval and the line joining them will be one of the two axes of the oval.
- Tie a piece of of string to both pins/nails with a bit of slack left over in the middle. The more slack between them, the larger your oval will be.
- Make a loop in the slack and put your pencil in the loop.
- Pull the string taut with the pencil away from the nails.
- Slowly move the pencil to the side keeping it straight up and down. Help the string clear the nails as necessary. Continue all the way around both nails always keeping the string taut.
Tips
- Increasing the amount of slack in the middle will increase the size of the oval.
- Putting the nails closer together will result in a shorter oval on that line.
- Putting the nails further apart will result in a longer oval in the line joining the nails.
- Putting only one nail will result into a circle, like you're Draw-a-Circle
