MOTIVATING  GEOMETRY THROUGH
COMPUTATION  AND  VISUALIZATION

funded by NSF-CCLI grant DUE-0126687

Principal Investigator
David L. Finn
Associate Professor of Mathematics
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Finn's Page | CCLI Info | Applets | Materials | Course Notes | Publications

EXERCISES to EXPLORE with this APPLET

In this applet, a circle is created in the center of the Applet Window. Your goal is to recreate the circle as best you can using Bezier curves.

  • Choose n+1 points pi on the circle as control points with p0=pn. How good of an approximation is this to a circle? Does the approximation get better using more and more points?
  • Can you get a better approximation using a regular n-gon (all sides with equal length) for the control polyline. You need n+1 control points with p0 = pn.
  • Create the best approximation to the circle using n+1 points with p0=pn.
    • How many points maximally should be on the circle?
    • Is there any guidelines for placing the points that you used.
  • Using Multiple Curves,
    • First approximate a quarter circle with a cubic Bezier curve.
    • Then repeat this process for the other three quarters with cubic Bezier curves.
    • Does this give a reasonable approximation to a circle? What is better about this approximation than the other approximation methods?