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| WHAT IS A CYCLOID? HOW TO DRAW A CYCLOID |
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| Imagine selecting a point on the edge of a car wheel (drawn as a small white dot). Then, push the wheel, allowing it to roll along a flat surface, in a straight line, for one revolution. The path traced out by the white cdot (your selected point), follows a curve called a cycloid. |
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| SIMPLE ANIMATION OF A BASIC CYCLOID |
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| SIMPLE ANIMATION OF A BASIC CYCLOID WITH CONSTRUCTION / GUIDELINES |
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| WHY IS THE STUDY OF CYCLOIDS IMPORTANT? |
| They have been studied for centuries, because they have significant applications in physics, mathematics, design and engineering. Cycloids have relevance in designing gears, timing mechanisms for clocks and plotting graphs that predict the role of gravity in astro-physics. There are many more important applications. |
| HOW TO DRAW A CYCLOID |
The geometrical technique for drawing the cycloid is shown below. The circle is divided into 12 sectors. A pair of dividers is used to measure the distance across one of the circle’s sectors and it is duplicated 12 times on the base line. |
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| HOW TO DRAW A SIMPLE CYCLOID |
| STAGE ONE |
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| STAGE TWO |
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| STAGE THREE |
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| STAGE FOUR |
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| STAGE FIVE |
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| STAGE SIX |
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