The Geometry of Some Families of Curves （一些家庭的几何曲线）.pdf

The Geometry of Some Families of Curves Described by Conchoids A conchoid is a way of deriving a new curve based on a given curve, a fixed point, and a positive constant k. Curves generated in this way are sometimes called general conchoids because this method is a generalization of the conchoid of Nicomedes. Step-by-step construction: 1. Specify a curve C, a point O not on C , and a constant k. 2. Draw a line l passing thru O and any point P on C. 3. Mark points Q1 and Q2 on l such that distance[Q ,P] = distance[Q ,P] = k. 1 2 4. The locus of Q and Q for all variable points P on C is the conchoid of C 1 2 with respect to O and offset k . The point O is called the pole. In general, if the equation of the given curve is r = f ( θ ) in polar coordinates, then the equation of its conchoid has the form: r = f ( θ ) ± k . Examples 1. The conchoid of a sinusoid with pole at ( 3, – 3 ) and offset k = 2 is displayed in the figure below. This conchoid is the pair of continuous curves formed as the union of all the bold dots in the plane. O = ( 3, – 3 ) 2. The Conchoid of Nicomedes, as shown in the figure, refers to an entire family of curves of one parameter. Each branch curve in the family is the conchoid of a common horizontal line (which is asymptotic to the curve). 1 If the asymptote to the Conchoid of Nicomedes is the line with the polar equation: r = a csc ( θ ) then the polar equation for each member curve is: r = a csc ( θ ) ± k for some number k.