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CYCLOID

The cycloid is the curve traced by a point on the rim of a circle rolling along a straight line. It was first studied in the 15th century and its properties, such as its area and arc length, challenged mathematicians for over 200 years. The cycloid is important because it allows a pendulum to have a consistent period of swing regardless of amplitude, making it isochronous.

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Saurabh Agrawal
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402 views4 pages

CYCLOID

The cycloid is the curve traced by a point on the rim of a circle rolling along a straight line. It was first studied in the 15th century and its properties, such as its area and arc length, challenged mathematicians for over 200 years. The cycloid is important because it allows a pendulum to have a consistent period of swing regardless of amplitude, making it isochronous.

Uploaded by

Saurabh Agrawal
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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CYCLOID

HISTORY The cycloid is the locus of a point at distance h from the centre of a circle of radius a that rolls along a straight line. The cycloid was first studied by Cusa when he was attempting to find the area of a circle by integration. Mersenne gave the first proper definition of the cycloid and stated the obvious properties such as the length of the base equals the circumference of the rolling circle. Mersenne attempted to find the area under the curve by integration but failed. He posed the question to other mathematicians. The curve was named by Galileo in 1599. In 1639 he wrote to Torricelli about the cycloid, saying that he had been studying its properties for 40 years. Galileo attempted to find the area by comparing its area to that of the generating circle. After he failed to find a mathematical method he resorted to weighing pieces of metal cut into the shape of the cycloid. He found that the ratio of the weights was approximately 3 to 1 but decided that it was not exactly 3, in fact he guessed (wrongly) that the ratio was not rational. Mersenne proposed the problem of the area to Roberval in 1628 and, although he failed at first, it was solved by Roberval in 1634. If a = h then the area under an arch is 3a2.
In 1658 Christopher Wren showed that the length of a cycloid is four times the diameter of its generating circle. The cycloid has been called "The Helen of Geometers" as it caused frequent quarrels among 17th century mathematicians
MATHEMATICS OF CYCLOID

Equations

The cycloid through the origin, generated by a circle of radius r, consists of the points (x, y), with

where t is a real parameter, corresponding to the angle through which the rolling circle has rotated, measured in radians. For given t, the circle's centre lies at x = rt, y = r. Solving for t and replacing, the Cartesian equation would be

The first arch of the cycloid consists of points such that

The cycloid is differentiable everywhere except at the cusps where it hits the x-axis, with the derivative tending toward approaches a cusp. The map from t to (x, y) is a differentiablecurve or parametric curve of class C and the singularity where the derivative is 0 is an ordinary cusp. The cycloid satisfies the differential equation:

or

as one

Area One arch of a cycloid generated by a circle of radius r can be parameterized by

with Since

we find the area under the arch to be

Arc length The arc length S of one arch is given by

IMPORTANCE OF CYCLOID
GALILEOS PENDULUM

Two pieces in wood, metal, or plastic shaped in the form of a cycloid may be inverted to form a cusp, between these sides a simple pendulum may be made to oscillate with a cycloid path with a large or small amplitude. Direct comparison with the added simple pendulum of the same length but without the cycloid attachment shows that the span style cycloidal pendulum is isochronous, regardless of amplitude. On the other hand the simple pendulum period depends upon the amplitude of its swing. If both pendulums are swung through large arcs, the cycloidal pendulum gains on the simple pendulum.

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