catenary: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As	chainette

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Catenary and exponential functionsAny nonelastic, uniform cable held at its ends will droop in the shape of a catenary. As shown here, the catenary is asymptotic in the negative and positive directions to graphs of, respectively, exponential decay (y = e−x/2) and exponential growth (y = ex/2).

Figure 25: Catenary, or chainette.

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Topics

catenoid curve conic section spiral Lissajous figure rhumb line involute brachistochrone orthogonal trajectory curvature tangent slope