cropcircles.photos the public record of crop formations, 1590–2026
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Shapes · 90 families · 290 diagrams in them · page 3 of 4

Shape families

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 that of B and B of C, all three are one family, so each 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.

90families
290diagrams in them
37largest family
4joined within, bits

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.

2 diagrams 7165b0dcc6

2 formation(s) 1991–2005 widest pair 4 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams 71863d97bc

2 formation(s) 2000 widest pair 4 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams 789bbf7cd4

2 formation(s) 1991–1992 widest pair 2 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams 78d51da022

2 formation(s) 1990–1992 widest pair 4 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams 7a88f64f91

2 formation(s) 1993–2019 widest pair 2 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams 7f62b3604c

2 formation(s) 1991–2023 widest pair 0 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams 84086cee4b

2 formation(s) 1983–1987 widest pair 4 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams 85244ba0f8

2 formation(s) 1988–1993 widest pair 4 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams 85568d3b6f

2 formation(s) 1994–2001 widest pair 4 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams 8a5d3d9c50

2 formation(s) 1998–2012 widest pair 4 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams 9ca9e0c374

2 formation(s) 2005–2024 widest pair 0 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams 9f1bfa59fc

2 formation(s) 2000–2003 widest pair 4 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams a440a4ec82

2 formation(s) 2005 widest pair 0 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams a495396d13

2 formation(s) 1999 widest pair 2 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams a5a099a22b

2 formation(s) 2006–2007 widest pair 2 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams a607497103

2 formation(s) 1994–1998 widest pair 2 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams a9197c299e

2 formation(s) 1999 widest pair 4 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams aa021c4ac3

2 formation(s) 1993–2002 widest pair 4 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams b3c4bcb176

2 formation(s) 1992 widest pair 4 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams b8d05f370a

2 formation(s) 2002 widest pair 2 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams b99015b846

2 formation(s) 1981–1985 widest pair 4 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams b9fa835434

2 formation(s) 1991 widest pair 2 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams bf156f9d85

2 formation(s) 1990 widest pair 2 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams bf5adaaf8c

2 formation(s) 1977–1991 widest pair 2 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid

2 diagrams bf81619cfa

2 formation(s) 1966–1969 widest pair 4 bit(s) apart shape hash the whole family in the grid