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Updated 8/1/2000
Here be a rose of polar function
Warning! Random Musings Ahead
The polar coordinates function rho = a * sin( n * theta ) was found
in a CRC math reference that belong to my geometry teacher.
I spent so much time looking at the book that she gave it to me.
In brief, polar coordinates are pairs of numbers (rho, theta)
where rho is the distance from the origin and theta is an angle
from the X axis. The conversion from polar coordinates to
Cartesian coordinates is X = rho * cos( theta ), Y = rho * sin( theta ).
The rho = a * sin( n * theta ) function draws a "rose" pattern where
a is the length of a leaf and n is the number of leaves.
Armed with this knowledge and my trusty TRS-80 Color Computer,
I was plotting away. I made a discovery that if n has a
fractional component that the plot has a repeating spirograph
effect of the nearest integer plot.
The spirograph effect of the function extended my interest to
this day. The latest Java source version may be viewed
here.
Click
here
to run the applet. Warning! there is no guarantee that
the applet will work with your browser.
The applet was built with Sun SDK version 1.3.
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