Four Bar Ellipse

G4G14

Four Bar Ellipse

Alexander Kernbaum

Toy

Recreational Math

Science

This mechanism demonstrates a surprising way to generate an ellipse by using a four-bar linkage. The shape of the ellipse can be defined by the path the intersection point of the two crossing bars follows. This fact is analogous to another neat way to make an ellipse with two fixed foci and a string of fixed length attached to them.

G14-063