Witch of Agnesi
Imagine a big curve that looks like a hill or a roller coaster. This curve is called the "Witch of Agnesi" and it was named after a woman named Maria Agnesi who was born in Italy a long time ago.
The Witch of Agnesi is like a magic curve that is made by drawing lots of little lines called tangent lines. A tangent line is a line that just touches the curve at one point, like a person's finger touching a ball.
To draw the Witch of Agnesi, you have to start with a point called the "origin". Then you draw a horizontal line that goes through the origin. Next, you draw a vertical line that starts at the origin and goes up.
Now comes the fun part. You pick any point on the vertical line and call it "P". Then you draw a line that goes from "P" and touches the curve at one point. This line is the tangent line we talked about earlier.
Then you draw another line from the point where the tangent line touches the curve, and you make this line go back to the horizontal line. This line will always be the same length and it will touch the horizontal line at a point.
Do this over and over again for lots of different points on the vertical line, and you'll eventually end up with the Witch of Agnesi curve!
Some people think it looks like a hill or a roller coaster, but other people think it looks like a dress. Either way, it's a really cool curve and it's named after a very smart woman.
The Witch of Agnesi is like a magic curve that is made by drawing lots of little lines called tangent lines. A tangent line is a line that just touches the curve at one point, like a person's finger touching a ball.
To draw the Witch of Agnesi, you have to start with a point called the "origin". Then you draw a horizontal line that goes through the origin. Next, you draw a vertical line that starts at the origin and goes up.
Now comes the fun part. You pick any point on the vertical line and call it "P". Then you draw a line that goes from "P" and touches the curve at one point. This line is the tangent line we talked about earlier.
Then you draw another line from the point where the tangent line touches the curve, and you make this line go back to the horizontal line. This line will always be the same length and it will touch the horizontal line at a point.
Do this over and over again for lots of different points on the vertical line, and you'll eventually end up with the Witch of Agnesi curve!
Some people think it looks like a hill or a roller coaster, but other people think it looks like a dress. Either way, it's a really cool curve and it's named after a very smart woman.