Radius1 (a)

Radius of Circle 1, centered at the origin.

Radius2 (b)

Radius of Circle 2, centered at (R+r,0)

Position (c)

Distance of drawing point from the center of Circle 2, the circle of radius r.

Velocity

Speed at which the SpiroGraph is drawn, with 0 being the slowest and 10 being the fastest. Can be adjusted while drawing is taking place. Sometimes half the fun is seeing your SpiroGraph being drawn! Sometimes not!

Resolution

Controls how precisely the SpiroGraph is drawn. For instance, with a Resolution of 360, the points (x(t),y(t)) are plotted for t=0,1,2,3,4,5,...,359,360 degrees. With a Resolution of 180, only the values of t=0,2,4,6,8,10,...,358,360 are used. Be careful -- the larger the Resolution, the longer it will take to draw the SpiroGraph. Normally, a value between 270 and 360 will be good enough. With a small value of Radius2 (say Radius2=1), a small change in Resolution can result in remarkably different SpiroGraphs.

Hide/Show

Changing the value of this button will determine whether or not to display the circles/axes while drawing is taking place. Note: SpiroGraphs are drawn much faster if you "Hide" the circles/axes.

Clear

This button will clear the screen of all SpiroGraphs.

Reset

This button stops the current SpiroGraph and returns Circle 2 and the drawing point to their original positions.

Draw/Pause/Resume

These buttons should be self explanatory.

Red/Green/Blue

You can adjust the values of these sliders to draw your SpiroGraph in virtually any color you like!

© 1997 David P. Little