Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T12:56:24.768Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Glissettes of an Ellipse and of a Hyperbola

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2014

Get access

Extract

Last summer, while engaged with some quaternion investigations connected with Dr Plarr's problem (the locus-boundary of the points of contact of an ellipsoid with three rectangular planes) I was led to construct the glissettes of an ellipse. I then showed to the Society a series of these curious curves, drawn in my laboratory by Mr Shand, who had constructed for the purpose a very true elliptic disc of sheet brass. I did not, at the time, think it necessary to print my paper; but, after the close of the session, I made the curious remark that precisely the same curves can be drawn each as a glissette of its own special hyperbola. This double mode of sliding generation of the same curve seems to possess interest. It is somewhat puzzling at first, since the ellipse turns completely round, while the hyperbola can only oscillate. But a little consideration shows the cause of the coincidence.

Type
Proceedings 1889-90
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1891

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)