Geometrography is a quantitative measure of the simplicity of a geometric construction which reduces geometric constructions to five steps. It was devised by È. Lemoine.
Place a straightedge's
graph edge through a given point,
Draw a straight line,
Place a point
of a compass on a given point,
Place a point
of a compass on an indeterminate point
on a line,
Draw a circle.
Geometrography seeks to reduce the number of operations (called the "simplicity") needed to effect a construction. If the number of the above operations are denoted
, 
, 
, 
, and 
, respectively, then the simplicity
is 
and the symbol is 
.
It is apparently an unsolved problem to determine if a given geometric
construction is of the smallest possible simplicity.
