Rolling a Coin inside a Circle

Initializing live version
Download to Desktop

Requires a Wolfram Notebook System

Interact on desktop, mobile and cloud with the free Wolfram Player or other Wolfram Language products.

A coin or a disk is placed inside a circle of diameter 2, with the edge of the disk touching the inside of the circle. The disk is then rolled around the circle, with the edge always touching. A simple problem, but if you trace the path made by a point at distance from the center of the disk, you get some very cool patterns! These are called spirograph patterns, roulettes, or hypotrochoids.

Contributed by: Chris Gadzinski (September 2011)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA


Snapshots


Details

detailSectionParagraph


Feedback (field required)
Email (field required) Name
Occupation Organization
Note: Your message & contact information may be shared with the author of any specific Demonstration for which you give feedback.
Send