If I were to swing a rope with a rock tied to the end of it in a circular pattern, and recreate the pattern by putting it on a cartesian-coordinate plane, how would I be able to find the function of the circular path the rock took? In other words, how do you find a function when all you have to look at is a 2 dimensional graph?

Question

jlastino · Answer

umm ...2*pi*r ?
it creates a circle with radius r (length of the rope)

anonymous · Answer

Excellent, that was what I was looking for. I was also wondering (if anybody has the answer), what if the function on the graph was just a hapharzardly drawn wavy line? Is there any way to determine what the function is simply by the points that the line would touch on the graph?

jlastino · Answer

You mean like this?|dw:1334625805544:dw|
Trig functions look like that

anonymous · Answer

Yes, judging from that line and its coordinates alone (had it been on a cartesian-coordinate plane) how would I be able to find the function? i.e. the "F(x)=" equation?

jlastino · Answer

hmm there's a long list of that but i guess you could refer here: http://www.douglas.bc.ca/services/learning-centre/pdf/math/MA1_80_Graphing_Functions.pdf

anonymous · Answer

Thanks for the help & info; appreciate the reply!