How to create a big circle composed from small circle?

Question

Is there any way to create the following picture in latex code?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Here is one quick idea with automata. You will find many other approaches in the pgf manual and on this site.

% arara: pdflatex

\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{automata}

\begin{document}
   \begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0:2) arc (0:360:20mm);
\foreach \i in {1,...,10}{
    \node[state,fill=white] (c_\i) at (-360/10 * \i+126:2cm) {$C_{\i}$};
      }
   \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}