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Cut The Knot!
An interactive column using Java applets
by Alex Bogomolny
Pick's Theorem
May 1998
Georg Alexander Pick, born in 1859 in Vienna, perished around 1943 in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. [9]
First published in 1899, the theorem was brought to broad attention in 1969 through the popular Mathematical Snapshots by H. Steinhaus. The theorem gives an elegant formula for the area of simple lattice polygons, where "simple", as usual, only means the absence of self-intersection. Polygons covered by the theorem have their vertices located at nodes of a square grid or lattice whose nodes are spaced at distance 1 from their immediate neighbors. The formula does not require math proficiency beyond middle grade school and can be easily verified with the help of a geoboard.
Pick's Theorem
Let P be a lattice polygon. Assume there are I(P) lattice points in the interior of P, and B(P) lattice points on its boundary. Let A(P) denote the area of P. Then
A(P) = I(P) + B(P)/2 - 1
The most illuminating proof comes from [15].
The applet below is an online variant of the common geoboard. To create a vertex click next to a lattice node. It dose not matter which node you choose. You'll be able to drag an existent vertex to any other node later on. Edges are added automatically. The new node is always inserted between the very first and last vertices. Intersecting edges are shown in red.
(Instead of the applet you can download and run locally an application that is performing exactly the same job.)
(The applet uses an adaptation of a scan conversion algorithm from [13]. The book is replete with ideas. It just appears that this one was not worked out completely. The applet also appears on a separate page from where it could be lifted for use by teachers on their own pages.)
With Pick's theorem one may determine area of a (polygonal) portion of a map. On a transparent paper draw a grid to scale and superimpose the grid over the map. Count the number of nodes inside and on the boundary of the map region. Apply Pick's formula with the selected scale.