释义 |
AstroidA 4-cusped Hypocycloid which is sometimes also called a Tetracuspid, Cubocycloid, or Paracycle.The parametric equations of the astroid can be obtained by plugging in or into the equations for ageneral Hypocycloid, giving
In Cartesian Coordinates,
 | (3) |
In Pedal Coordinates with the Pedal Point at the center, the equation is
 | (4) |
The Arc Length, Curvature, and Tangential Angle are
As usual, care must be taken in the evaluation of for . Since (5) comes from an integral involving theAbsolute Value of a function, it must be monotonic increasing. Each Quadrant can be treated correctly bydefining
 | (8) |
where is the Floor Function, giving the formula
 | (9) |
The overall Arc Length of the astroid can be computed from the general Hypocycloid formula
 | (10) |
with ,
 | (11) |
The Area is given by
 | (12) |
with ,
 | (13) |
The Evolute of an Ellipse is a stretched Hypocycloid. The gradient of the Tangent fromthe point with parameter is . The equation of this Tangent is
 | (14) |
(MacTutor Archive). Let cut the x-Axis and the y-Axis at and , respectively. Then the length is a constantand is equal to .
The astroid can also be formed as the Envelope produced when a Line Segment is moved with each end on one of apair of Perpendicular axes (e.g., it is the curve enveloped by a ladder sliding against a wall or a garage door with thetop corner moving along a vertical track; left figure above). The astroid is therefore a Glissette. To see this, notethat for a ladder of length , the points of contact with the wall and floor are and ,respectively. The equation of the Line made by the ladder with its foot at is therefore
 | (15) |
which can be written
 | (16) |
The equation of the Envelope is given by the simultaneous solution of
 | (17) |
which is
Noting that
allows this to be written implicitly as
 | (22) |
the equation of the astroid, as promised.
The related problem obtained by having the ``garage door'' of length with an ``extension'' of length move up and down a slotted track also gives a surprising answer. In this case, the position of the ``extended''end for the foot of the door at horizontal position and Angle is given by
Using
 | (25) |
then gives
Solving (26) for , plugging into (27) and squaring then gives
 | (28) |
Rearranging produces the equation
 | (29) |
the equation of a (Quadrant of an) Ellipse with Semimajor and Semiminor Axes of lengths and .
The astroid is also the Envelope of the family of Ellipses
 | (30) |
illustrated above.See also Deltoid, Ellipse Envelope, Lamé Curve, Nephroid, Ranunculoid References
Lawrence, J. D. A Catalog of Special Plane Curves. New York: Dover, pp. 172-175, 1972.Lee, X. ``Astroid.''http://www.best.com/~xah/SpecialPlaneCurves_dir/Astroid_dir/astroid.html. Lockwood, E. H. ``The Astroid.'' Ch. 6 in A Book of Curves. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, pp. 52-61, 1967. MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive. ``Astroid.''http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Curves/Astroid.html. Yates, R. C. ``Astroid.'' A Handbook on Curves and Their Properties. Ann Arbor, MI: J. W. Edwards, pp. 1-3, 1952. |