Ear Clipping (Triangulation)

Various (attributed), 1978

Ear clipping is often traced to practical computational geometry tutorials from the late 1970s onward: a simple polygon always contains an “ear” triangle formed by three consecutive vertices whose interior stays empty. The animation retains the live ring in teal, fills removed ears in translucent coral, highlights the clipped tip in gold, and shows the guard dashed triangle before each clip.