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Freeth's Supertrisectrix


Freeth's supertrisectrix is the strophoid of a limaçon trisectrix with the center of its generating circle as pole and its double point as fixed point (Lockwood 1967, p. 136).

Choose a scale a>0, pole O=(0,0), and fixed point A=(-a,0). The generating limaçon trisectrix can then be parametrized as Q(t)=(2acostcos3t,2acostsin3t). For Q(t)!=O, the strophoid consists of the two points on the line OQ(t) whose distance from Q(t) equals AQ(t), together with their limiting points. Both branches are traced by the parametric equations

x(t)=a(1+2cost+2cos2t)cos3t
(1)
y(t)=a(1+2cost+2cos2t)sin3t,
(2)

where 0<=t<2pi (Mangaldan 2021). Equivalently, the polar equation is

 r=a(1+2costheta/3+2cos(2theta)/3)
(3)

for 0<=theta<6pi.

The curve can be used to construct a regular hendecagon. Its intersection P=(-a/2,(a/2)tan(5pi/11)) with the perpendicular bisector of OA gives an isosceles triangle OAP whose base angles are 5pi/11 and whose vertex angle is pi/11 ("Appendix" 1879).


See also

Freeth's Nephroid, Limaçon Trisectrix, Strophoid

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References

--. "Appendix." Proc. London Math. Soc. 10, 225-230, 1879. https://doi.org/10.1112/plms/s1-10.1.225.Lockwood, E. H. "Strophoids." Ch. 16 in A Book of Curves. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, pp. 134-137, 1967. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511569340.020.Mangaldan, J. "StrophoidCurve." Wolfram Function Repository. Feb. 9, 2021. https://resources.wolframcloud.com/FunctionRepository/resources/StrophoidCurve/.

Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Freeth's Supertrisectrix." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/FreethsSupertrisectrix.html

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