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Epicycloid
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In geometry, an epicycloid is a plane curve produced by tracing the path of a chosen point of a circle called an epicycle which rolls without slipping around a fixed circle. It is a particular kind of roulette. If the smaller circle has radius r, and the larger circle has radius R = kr, then the parametric equations for the curve can be given by either:
The red curve is an epicycloid traced as the small circle (radius r = 1) rolls around the outside of the large circle (radius R = 3).
or:
If k is an integer, then the curve is closed, and has k cusps (i.e., sharp corners, where the curve is not differentiable). If k is a rational number, say k=p/q expressed in simplest terms, then the curve has p cusps. If k is an irrational number, then the curve never closes, and forms a dense subset of the space between the larger circle and a circle of radius R + 2r. There are different types of epicycloids, like the epicycloid of cremona. Epicycloid Examples
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k=1
k=2
k=3
k=4
k = 2.1 = 21/10
k = 3.8 = 19/5
k = 5.5 = 11/2
k = 7.2 = 36/5
The epicycloid is a special kind of epitrochoid. An epicycle with one cusp is a cardioid. An epicycloid and its evolute are similar.[1]
Contents
Proof
We
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assume that the position of is what we want to solve, is the radian from the tangential point to the moving point , and is the radian from the starting point to the tangential point. Since there is no sliding between the two cycles, then we have that
By the definition of radian (which is the rate arc over radius), then we have that
and , which is
clearly.
See also
Special cases: Cardioid, Nephroid Cycloid Hypocycloid Epitrochoid Hypotrochoid Spirograph Deferent and epicycle Epicyclic gearing
References
J. Dennis Lawrence (1972). A catalog of special plane curves. Dover Publications. pp. 161,168 170,175. ISBN 0-486-60288-5.
External links
Epicycloid, MathWorld "Epicycloid" by Michael Ford, The Wolfram Demonstrations Project, 2007 O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Epicycloid", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews, http://www-history.mcs.standrews.ac.uk/Curves/Epicycloid.html.
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This page was last modified on 3 August 2012 at 11:35. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicycloid
8/21/2012