This Demonstration shows Newton's method of drawing the cissoid of Diocles. The length of and the point are fixed. As you drag on the straight line , is kept perpendicular to . The midpoint of traces out the cissoid.
According to [1], the method uses two line segments of equal length at right angles. If they are moved so that one line always passes through a fixed point and the end of the other line segment slides along a straight line, then the mid-point of the sliding line segment traces out a cissoid of Diocles.
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