Cycloids
I love interesting geometric designs, and the cycloid is one of my all-time favorites. Perhaps you’ve drawn cycloids using a Spirograph toy and a pen or pencil.
Being a nerd, I typically draw cycloids using my computer. Here’s an example of how a computer program draws a hypo-cycloid (an epi-cycloid would have the drawing “gear” on the outside of the big circle)…
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If you use your imagination, you can see that the small “gear” is rolling along the inside surface of the large circle in a counter-clockwise fashion.
Here are some fun cycloid designs that I made a long time ago…
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Posted: September 21st, 2007 under Art.
Comments
Comment from Jed
Time 2007/09/21 at 11:16 am
Thanks! I generated them with a program that I wrote in C++ using the Windows GDI+ graphics libraries. Someday I’ll have to post an applet version of the program.
Comment from Anonymous
Time 2007/09/29 at 10:58 pm
These are cool! When are you going to get the “cycloid” back on your website? (When are you going to get your website up again? 
) I enjoyed using it.
BethanyH
Comment from jeff
Time 2007/09/21 at 9:50 am
These are pretty cool. Did you use an existing program, or write something yourself to generate them?