This is a prototype of JavaSketchpad, a World-Wide-Web component of The Geometer's Sketchpad. Copyright ©1990-1997 by Key Curriculum Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Portions of this work are being funded by the National Science Foundation (awards DMI 9561674 & 9623018 ).

Lissajous Curves

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The magenta locus is a lissajous curve, the path of a point each of whose coordinates is under harmonic motion. Drag endpoints of the blue and green segments to alter the respective harmonics. The cyan segment (at the bottom of the sketch) determines the length of the curve. If, as in physics, one considers the curve as the path of a particle, this segment's length represents time. The curve could thus be represented analytically as [sin(bt+k0), sin(gt+k1)] t e {0..c} where k0 and k1 are constants, and b, g, and c the lengths of the blue, green, and cyan segments respectively.

-Nick "Jackous," 9/97


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