If you drew a dot on the edge of a wheel and traced the path of the dot as the wheel rolled one complete revolution along a line, then the path formed would be called a cycloid (shown below), combining both forward and circular motion.

If a wheel of radius 1 traces out such a path, what is the length of the path formed by one complete revolution?

my initial reaction is that it equals the circumfrence or 2π

it is just one point traveling the outerrim of a circle.

Posted by Hank on 2003-06-23 04:48:12