Apollonian gasket

In mathematics, an Apollonian gasket or Apollonian net is a fractal generated from three circles, any two of which are tangent to one another. It is named after Greek mathematician Apollonius of Perga.

Variations

An Apollonian gasket can also be constructed by replacing one of the generating circles by a straight line, which can be regarded as a circle passing through the point at infinity.

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Alternatively, two of the generating circles may be replaced by parallel straight lines, which can be regarded as being tangent to one another at infinity. In this construction, the circles that are tangent to one of the two straight lines form a family of Ford circles.

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