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.
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
