Shape families
90families
290diagrams in them
37largest family
4joined within, bits
A family is a set of diagrams whose shape hashes lie within 4 bits of one
another, joined by single linkage: if A is within 4 bits of B and B of C, all three are one family,
so each family prints the widest distance inside it as well as its size. Families are built on the shape
hash — the hash of the ink alone — and therefore over cropcirclecenter.com's diagrams, which are the only ones
measured that way. Why the other two sites have no families.
These are similarities between drawings, not between crop formations. Three sites drew them, to three conventions: cropcirclecenter.com redraws every formation in one editor's house style at one size, and the other two publish scans and photographs of many hands. Two diagrams that hash together may be one design published twice, one editor's habit, or the same drawing reused — the archive cannot tell you which, and a family here is never evidence that two formations are related.
The biggest families are the simplest designs. Two circles, three circles in a triangle, a ring inside a ring: a plain design has few ways of being drawn and every editor draws it much the same, so it gathers a large family. Size here measures how ordinary a shape is, not how surprising the repeat is — a family of two rare designs is the more interesting find, and it sits at the bottom of the list.
The shape numbers are experimental. M3-6b graded the element count right to within one on 97.5 % of a hand-labelled sample and the rotational order right on 88.8 % against a gate of 90 %, which the extractor did not meet; the ring count agrees with a reader on 35.9 % and is not calibrated at all. Read any number here beside the picture, not instead of it.
37 diagrams 3cbd6e584b
45 formation(s)
1978–1999
widest pair 6 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
and 29 more — open the family.
13 diagrams 9eea272974
14 formation(s)
1935–2006
widest pair 10 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
and 5 more — open the family.
12 diagrams 64dca3f910
15 formation(s)
1975–2008
widest pair 4 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
and 4 more — open the family.
12 diagrams eba1e97a91
14 formation(s)
1964–2020
widest pair 0 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
and 4 more — open the family.
11 diagrams 8024283422
13 formation(s)
1973–2003
widest pair 10 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
and 3 more — open the family.
6 diagrams 3e96e53663
6 formation(s)
2011
widest pair 0 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
6 diagrams b3b71fd4bf
6 formation(s)
1991–1993
widest pair 6 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
5 diagrams 08c44b6dec
5 formation(s)
1982–1993
widest pair 4 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
4 diagrams 0c3d36c248
4 formation(s)
1975–2004
widest pair 8 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
4 diagrams 19dc40413c
4 formation(s)
1937–2001
widest pair 8 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
4 diagrams 214b59c280
4 formation(s)
2010–2025
widest pair 0 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
4 diagrams 4710563420
4 formation(s)
1989–1993
widest pair 4 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
4 diagrams 65df02d323
4 formation(s)
1992–1999
widest pair 4 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
3 diagrams 00a32ab099
3 formation(s)
1992–1994
widest pair 6 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
3 diagrams 2808ef4057
3 formation(s)
1991
widest pair 4 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
3 diagrams 3f36d02e34
4 formation(s)
1975–1991
widest pair 8 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
3 diagrams 4872bdf08b
3 formation(s)
1990–1998
widest pair 4 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
3 diagrams 540cfa36ca
3 formation(s)
1992–2017
widest pair 8 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
3 diagrams 57dcf08287
3 formation(s)
1988–2008
widest pair 6 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
3 diagrams 77658f7b6c
3 formation(s)
1996–2008
widest pair 4 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
3 diagrams 7ffa98cfcf
3 formation(s)
1994
widest pair 4 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
3 diagrams 93b6b1e633
3 formation(s)
1590–1998
widest pair 4 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
3 diagrams 9fff66c360
6 formation(s)
1974–1991
widest pair 4 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
3 diagrams b58139064e
3 formation(s)
1994–1995
widest pair 2 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
3 diagrams cc1c2e9d86
3 formation(s)
1990–1996
widest pair 4 bit(s) apart
shape hash
the whole family
in the grid
