Similarity Classes of the Longest-Edge Trisection of Triangles

This paper studies the triangle similarity classes obtained by iterative application of the longest-edge trisection of triangles. The longest-edge trisection (3T-LE) of a triangle is obtained by joining the two points which divide the longest edge in three equal parts with the opposite vertex. This partition, as well as the longest-edge bisection (2T-LE), does not degenerate, which means that there is a positive lower bound to the minimum angle generated. However, unlike what happens with the 2T-LE, the number of similarity classes appearing by the iterative application of the 3T-LE to a single initial triangle is not finite in general. There are only three exceptions to this fact: the right triangle with its sides in the ratio 1:2:3 and the other two triangles in its orbit. This result, although of a combinatorial nature, is proved here with the machinery of discrete dynamics in a triangle shape space with hyperbolic metric. It is also shown that for a point with an infinite orbit, infinite points of the orbit are in three circles with centers at the points with finite orbits.