1 and 2.

And we demonstrate, through examples, applications to diverse elds such as descriptive geometry, computer graphics, printing, sheet metal construction, and educational hands-on activities. Starting with section 9, we also investigate what happens to a space curve unwrapped from the lateral surface of a right circular cone. For example, a plane cuts the cone along a conic section, and we can analyze the shape of the corresponding unwrapped conic. This leads to a remarkable family of periodic plane curves that apparently have not been previously investigated. The family is described by a polar equation resembling that for a conic section. We call members of this family generalized conics; limiting cases include all ordinary conic sections, as well as the sinusoidal curves mentioned earlier. 2. UNWRAPPING AN ELLIPSE FROM A CIRCULAR CYLINDER. Before turning to the general problem, lets analyze the foregoing sinusoidal construction. Cut a right circular cylinder of radius r by a plane through a diameter of its base at angle of inclination , where 0 < < /2. The example in Figure 3a shows part of the elliptical cross section and a wedge cut from the cylinder. A vertical cutting plane parallel to the major axis of the ellipse intersects the wedge along a right triangle T (shown shaded) with base angle . When the lateral surface of the cylinder is unwrapped onto a plane, the circular base unfolds along a line we call the x -axis. Here x is the length of the circular arc measured from point A at the extremity of the base diameter to point B at the base of triangle T , as shown in Figure 3a. The base of T has length r sin(x / r ), and its height is h sin(x / r ) where h = r tan , so the unwrapped curve is the graph of the function x u (x ) = h sin , r representing a sinusoidal curve with period 2 r and amplitude h . For xed r the amplitude h increases with .

T
r A (a) x B 0 x

u (x ) = h sin

x r

r (b)

Figure 3. The circular arc AB of length x in (a) unwraps onto the line segment [0, x ] in (b). The altitude of triangle T unwraps onto the height u (x ).

An adjacent arch below the x -axis comes from unwrapping the second symmetrically located wedge. Volume calculations of cylindrical wedges like these were considered by Archimedes and are analyzed in more detail in [2], where unwrapping of a cylinder is also used to deduce the quadrature of a sine curve without integral calculus. 3. CURVE OF INTERSECTION OF TWO CYLINDERS. A cylinder is any surface generated or swept out by a straight line moving along a plane curve and remaining parallel to a given line. The curve is called a directrix of the cylinder, and the moving line that sweeps out the cylinder is called a generator. The directrix is not May 2007]
UNWRAPPING CURVES FROM CYLINDERS AND CONES

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