Bifolium

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Bifolium with a = 1 Bifolium01.svg
Bifolium with a = 1

A bifolium is a quartic plane curve with equation in Cartesian coordinates:

Contents

Construction and equations

Construction of the bifolium Bifolium.gif
Construction of the bifolium

Given a circle C through a point O, and line L tangent to the circle at point O: for each point Q on C, define the point P such that PQ is parallel to the tangent line L, and PQ = OQ. The collection of points P forms the bifolium. [1]

In polar coordinates, the bifolium's equation is

while (first eqn.)

For a = 1, the total included area is approximately 0.10.

See also

Reference

  1. Kokoska, Stephen. "Fifty Famous Curves, Lots of Calculus Questions, And a Few Answers" (PDF). facstaff.bloomu.edu. Retrieved 6 January 2018.