Brachistochrones

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This shows the shape of the brachistochrone from the origin to a variable final point. The circles indicate the position of the sliding point at equally spaced times.
Contributed by: Michael Trott (March 2011)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
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More than 300 years after Johann Bernoulli published the "problema novum" in Acta Eruditorium in the summer of 1696, the new Manipulate feature of Mathematica 6 shows the solution curve, a brachistochrone, in an interactive way.
Permanent Citation
"Brachistochrones"
http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/Brachistochrones/
Wolfram Demonstrations Project
Published: March 7 2011