Concept explainers
Tractrix A person moves from the origin along the positive y-axis pulling a weight at the end of a 12-meter rope. Initially, the weight is located at the point (12.0).
(a) In Exercise 61 of Section 8,4, it was shown that the path of the weight is modeled by the rectangular equation
where
(b) Use a graphing utility to graph the parametric equations
where
(c) Use the parametric equations for the tractrix to verify that the distance from the v-intercept of the tangent line to the point of tangency is independent of the location of the point of tangency.
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Calculus of a Single Variable
- Algebra & Trigonometry with Analytic GeometryAlgebraISBN:9781133382119Author:SwokowskiPublisher:Cengage