Trammels

Archimedes Trammel is a device for drawing ellipses.

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Trammel foci

Altering |AB| and |AC| changes the ellipse. Can you find a relationship between |AB|, AC| and |DE|, the distance between the foci?

Tags: ellipse, foci, trammel, principal-axes

Inverted Trammel

Archimedes trammel draws an ellipse if you fix the base and move the handle. What happens if you fix the handle and move the base? Drag point D to find out. See the curve.

Tags: trammel, ellipse

Inverted Trammel 2

Archimedes trammel draws an ellipse if used properly. Turning the trammel upside down gives a curve which is certainly not an ellipse.

Tags: Trammel-2

Archimedes Trammel has 2 sliders and 1 degree of freedom. This ”supertrammel” has 3 sliders and still has 1 degree of freedom. We made one out of wood and enjoyed playing with it. You can play with this electronic reproduction.

Tags: trammel, cycloid