Archimedean spiral $\oplus$ sawtooth = circles

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Archimedean spiral $\oplus$ sawtooth = circles

But what about the involute of the circle instead of the Archimedean spiral?


Let the unit circle be given by

$$\gamma_\text{circ}(t) = (x_\text{circ}(t),y_\text{circ}(t)) = (\cos( t),\sin( t))$$

and consider the linear function $f(t) = t$.
(For the sake of simplicity of the following formulas please assume that $2\pi = 1$ )

Let the Archimedean spiral be given by $\gamma_\text{arc} = \gamma_\text{circ} \oplus f$ with

$$x_\text{arc}(t) = x_\text{circ}(t) + f(t)\cos( t) = \cos( t) + t\cos( t) = (1+ t)\cos( t)$$

$$y_\text{arc}(t) = y_\text{circ}(t) + f(t)\sin( t) = \sin( t) + t\sin( t) = (1+ t)\sin( t)$$

The Archimedean spiral may be considered as modulating the unit circle (blue) by the linear function $f(t) = t$:

enter image description here

Now do the reverse:

Modulate the Archimedean spiral by the sawtooth wave $f'(t) = \lfloor t\rfloor - t$, i.e. perform $\gamma_\text{arc'} = \gamma_\text{arc} \oplus f'$ with

$$x_\text{arc'}(t) = x_\text{arc}(t) + f'(t)\cos( t) = (1 + t + (\lfloor t\rfloor) - t)\cos( t) = (1+ \lfloor t\rfloor)\cos( t)$$

$$y_\text{arc'}(t) = y_\text{arc}(t) + f'(t)\sin( t) = (1 + t + (\lfloor t\rfloor) - t)\sin( t) = (1+ \lfloor t\rfloor)\sin( t)$$

What one gets for $\gamma_\text{arc'}$ are obviously circles with equally spaced radii, i.e. $\gamma_\text{arc'} = \bigcup_{k=0}^\infty (1 + k)\gamma_\text{circ}$:

enter image description here


You may do something similar with the involute of the circle given by

$$x_\text{inv}(t) = \cos( t) + t\sin( t)$$

$$y_\text{inv}(t) = \sin( t) - t\cos( t) $$

compared to the Archimedean spiral (gray) given by

$$x_\text{arc}(t) = \cos( t) + t\cos( t)$$

$$y_\text{arc}(t) = \sin( t) + t\sin( t) $$

enter image description here

The Archimedean spiral (gray) and the involute of the circle (black) are more different than one might expect by just looking at their drawings, especially by different arc lengths $\mathrm{d}s_\text{arc} = \sqrt{1+t^2}\ \mathrm{d}t$ as opposed to $\mathrm{d}s_\text{inv} = t\ \mathrm{d}t$.

When modulating the involute by the sawtooth wave $f'(t)$ as above by $\gamma_\text{inv'} = \gamma_\text{inv} \oplus f'$, i.e.

$$x_\text{inv'}(t) = x_\text{inv}(t) + f'(t)\cos( t)$$

$$y_\text{inv'}(t) = y_\text{inv}(t) + f'(t)\sin( t)$$

the different arc lengths result in a quite different picture:

enter image description here

i.e. not distinguished circles anymore, but another but cut-off spiral.


I wonder how this can be "rescued", i.e.

  1. By which other function $g(t)$ does one have to modulate the involute of the circle to get circles as for the Archimedean spiral?

  2. Alternatively: By which other operation $\oplus$ would $f'(t)$ yield circles for the involute of the circle?