How to plot Cycloid with python

Do you already see the animation of “Cycloid”? Do you want to plot it yourself with python? This tutorial will show how to plot Cycloid with python.

Python libraries

pip install matplotlib

pip install numpy

Plotted figure

Utils functions

Two utils function to plot circle and bar:

def circle(x0,y0,color=’r’,r=1):
t=np.arange(0,2*np.pi,1./100)
x=np.cos(t)*r+x0
y=np.sin(t)*r+y0
plt.plot(x,y,color=color)

def bar(x0,y0,theta,color=’m’,r=1):
rr=np.arange(0,r,1./100)
x=np.cos(theta)*rr+x0
y=np.sin(theta)*rr+y0
plt.plot(x,y,color=color)

main plot code

# plot cycloid
theta=np.arange(0,2*np.pi,1./100)
x=theta-np.sin(theta)
y=1-np.cos(theta)
plt.axis(‘equal’)
plt.plot(x,y,’y’)
# plot origin circle (x0=0,y0=1)
circle(0,1,’r’)
bar(0,1,-np.pi/2,’r’)
# plot circle 1
theta=np.pi*0.4
circle(theta,1,’g’)
bar(theta,1,-theta-np.pi/2,’g’)
bar(theta,1,-np.pi/2,’c’)
# plot circle 2
theta=np.pi*1.4
circle(theta,1,’b’)
bar(theta,1,-theta-np.pi/2,’b’)
bar(theta,1,-np.pi/2,’c’)

Have fun ^_^