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    Catenary: This File Is From The 3D-Xploremath Project. Please See HTTP://RSP - Math.Brandeis - Edu/3D-Xplormath/Index - HTML

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    Hyunkyoun Jin
    The catenary is the shape that a perfectly flexible and inextensible hanging chain or string assumes under its own weight. It can be defined mathematically as the graph of the function y=acosh(x/a). Galileo originally thought it was a parabola, but it was later proven to have a catenary shape. The catenary and its evolute, the tractrix curve, have several interesting geometric properties when studied, such as their relationship to caustics, involutes, and radial curves.

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    Catenary: This File Is From The 3D-Xploremath Project. Please See HTTP://RSP - Math.Brandeis - Edu/3D-Xplormath/Index - HTML

    Uploaded by

    Hyunkyoun Jin
    168 views6 pages
    The catenary is the shape that a perfectly flexible and inextensible hanging chain or string assumes under its own weight. It can be defined mathematically as the graph of the function y=acosh(x/a). Galileo originally thought it was a parabola, but it was later proven to have a catenary shape. The catenary and its evolute, the tractrix curve, have several interesting geometric properties when studied, such as their relationship to caustics, involutes, and radial curves.

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    The catenary is the shape that a perfectly flexible and inextensible hanging chain or string assumes under its own weight. It can be defined mathematically as the graph of the function y=acosh(x/a). Galileo originally thought it was a parabola, but it was later proven to have a catenary shape. The catenary and its evolute, the tractrix curve, have several interesting geometric properties when studied, such as their relationship to caustics, involutes, and radial curves.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    168 views6 pages

    Catenary: This File Is From The 3D-Xploremath Project. Please See HTTP://RSP - Math.Brandeis - Edu/3D-Xplormath/Index - HTML

    Uploaded by

    Hyunkyoun Jin
    The catenary is the shape that a perfectly flexible and inextensible hanging chain or string assumes under its own weight. It can be defined mathematically as the graph of the function y=acosh(x/a). Galileo originally thought it was a parabola, but it was later proven to have a catenary shape. The catenary and its evolute, the tractrix curve, have several interesting geometric properties when studied, such as their relationship to caustics, involutes, and radial curves.

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    Catenary

    The catenary is also known as the chainette, alysoid, and hyperbolic cosine. It is dened as the graph of the function y = a cosh(x/a). (Recall that cosh(x) is dened as (ex +ex)/2, where e = 2.71828 . . . is the base of the natural logarithms.

    The Catenary

    The catenary is the shape an ideal string takes when hanging between two points. By ideal is meant that the string is perferctly exible and inextensible, has no thickness, is of uniform density. In other words the catenary is a mathematical abstraction of the shape of a hanging string, and it closely approximates
    This le is from the 3D-XploreMath project. Please see http://rsp.math.brandeis.edu/3D-XplorMath/index.html

    the shapes of most hanging string-like objects we see, such as ropes, outdoor telecommunication wires, necklaces, chains, etc. For any particular hanging string, we will need to choose the parameter a correctly to model that string. It is worth to noting that except for scaling there is really only a single catenary. That is, the scaling transformation (x, y) (ax, ay) maps the graph of y = a cosh(x/a) onto the graph of y = cosh(x). Notice too that the scaling transformation just amounts to a change in the choice of units used to measure distances. History Galileo was the rst to investigate the catenary, but he mistook it for a parabola. James Bernoulli in 1691 obtained its true form and gave some of its properties. [cf., Robert C. Yates, 1952] Galileos suggestion that a heavy rope would hang in the shape of a parabola was disproved by Jungius in 1669, but the true shape of the catenary, was not found until 169091, when Huygens, Leibniz and John Bernoulli replied to a challenge by James Bernoulli. David Gregory, the Oxford professor, wrote a comprehensive treatise on the catenarian in 1697. The name was rst used by Huygens in a letter to Leibniz in 1690. [cf., E.H.Lockwood, 1961]. [By the way, it is true that if you carefully weight a hanging string so that their is equal weight of string per unit of horizontal distance (rather than per unit of length) then its shape will be a parabola, so Gallileo wasnt so far from the truth.]
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    The Catenary has numerous interesting properties. Properties


    Caustics

    parallel rays above the exponetial curve The Catacaustic of the exponential curve ex with light rays from above and parallel to the y axes is the catenary. The exponential curve ex has the interesting property itself. It is the only function whose derivative is itself.

    Involute

    The involute of catenary starting at the vertex is the curve tractrix. (In 3DXM, the involutes of a curve can be shown in the menu Action Show Involutes.) Note that all involutes are parallel curves of each other. This is a theorem.
    Evolute

    The evolute of catenary is also the tractrix. (In 3DXM, this can be seen from the menu Action Show Osculating Circles.)

    Radial and Kampyle of Eudoxus

    The radial of catenary is the Kampyle of Eudoxus. In the gure above, the blue curve is half of catenary. The green curve is Kampyle of Eudoxus. The rainbow lines are the radiuses of osculating circles. the Kampyle of Eudoxus is dened as the parametric curve x = cosh(t) sinh(t), y = cosh(t).

    Catenoid

    If you rotate the graph of x = cosh(y) about the y-axis, the resulting surface of revolution is a minimal surface, called the Catenoid. It is one endpoint of an interesting morph you can see in 3DXM, by switching to the Surface category, choosing Helicoid-Catenoid from the Surface menu, and then choosing Morph from the Animate menu. If you look closely you will see that during this morph distances and angles on the surface are preserved. See About This Object... in the Documentation menu when Helicoid-Catenoid is selected for a discussion of this. XL.
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