Epicycloid

Parametric Cartesian equation:
x = (a + b) cos(t) - b cos((a/b + 1)t), y = (a + b) sin(t) - b sin((a/b + 1)t)

Click below to see one of the Associated curves.

Definitions of the Associated curves	Evolute
Involute 1	Involute 2
Inverse curve wrt origin	Inverse wrt another circle
Pedal curve wrt origin	Pedal wrt another point
Negative pedal curve wrt origin	Negative pedal wrt another point
Caustic wrt horizontal rays	Caustic curve wrt another point

For the epicycloid, an example of which is shown above, the circle of radius b rolls on the outside of the circle of radius a. The point P is on the circumference of the circle of radius b. For the example drawn here a = 8 and b = 5.

These curves were studied by Dürer (1525), Desargues (1640), Huygens (1679), Leibniz, Newton (1686), de L'Hôpital (1690), Jacob Bernoulli (1690), la Hire (1694), Johann Bernoulli (1695), Daniel Bernoulli (1725), Euler (1745, 1781).

Special cases are a = b when a cardioid is obtained and a = 2b when a nephroid is obtained.

If a = (m - 1)b where m is an integer, then the length of the epicycloid is 8mb and its area is πb²(m² + m).

The pedal curve, when the pedal point is the centre, is a rhodonea curve.

The evolute of an epicycloid is a similar epicycloid - look at the evolute of the epicycloid above to see it is a similar epicycloid but smaller in size.

Other Web site:

Xah Lee

The URL of this page is:
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Curves/Epicycloid.html