I was kind of thankful this afternoon to have had my early morning refresher in Geometry. The 7th and 8th grade boys have been wanting to make a top arena for battling with spinning tops. It requires two pieces of wood to be cut into octagons. This morning's head scratching put me in the right frame of mind to teach and to help. The kids and their top arena gave me the chance to test my rule of thumb in action.

Have you ever wondered about coincidence? What does it mean? Do these things happen for no reason, or is there some kind of inexplicable intelligence behind the workings of things? You decide. Some leap to fanciful conclusions of faith. I am just so very glad and relieved that we don't have everything figured out yet... that there are mysteries and inexplicable relationships. They make each day an adventure.

Here is another way to figure the angle from the Rockler Website: Bevel angle of saw (degrees off 90°) = 180/Number of sides.