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A colour spiral

Draw a spiral of 72 lines that cycles through the six colours in the list: use pencolor, forward(i * 3) and left(59).

Learn

A spiral is a line that grows a little each step while the turtle keeps turning. Each time round the loop, i gets bigger, so forward(i * 3) draws a longer line, and turning a bit less than 60 degrees makes the lines wind outwards. A list of colours and i % 6 (the remainder) picks the next colour in turn.

Your task

Draw a spiral of 72 lines that cycles through the six colours in the list: use pencolor, forward(i * 3) and left(59).

Stretch challenge

Change 59 to 91 or 121 and see how the spiral changes. Which angle makes a star?

← Any shape with one number A rosette of circles →

Python

Press Run to see what your program prints.

Keep going in Python Studio

Your first drawing: a square

Use a for loop to draw a square with sides of 100.

Start →2

Any shape with one number

Draw a regular polygon using the variable sides: the turtle should turn 360 / sides degrees each time. Try changing sides to see other shapes.

Start →4

A rosette of circles

Draw 12 circles of radius 60, turning left 30 degrees after each, and change the pen colour to a different colour for each pair.

Start →

Practise the idea

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FAQ

A colour spiral: common questions

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