Encyclopedia > Tautochrone curve

  Article Content

Tautochrone curve

A tautochrone curve is the curve for which the time taken by a particle sliding down it under uniform gravity to its lowest point is independent of its starting point.

The tautochrone problem, the attempt to identify this curve, was solved by Huygens in 1659. He proved geometrically in his Horologium oscillatorium (1673) that the curve was a cycloid. This solution was later used to attack the problem of the brachistochrone curve.

Later mathematicians such as Lagrange and Euler looked for an analytical solution to the problem.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
North Haven, New York

... 0.00% Pacific Islander, 0.00% from other races, and 0.54% from two or more races. 1.48% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 337 households ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 24.4 ms