Circle and Rod problem
Suppose one end of a rod is attached to a point on a circle of radius 1, centered at the origin. The point moves around the circle at a constant rate, counter-clockwise. The other end of the rod stays on the x-axis, but is free to move back and forth. The result is illustrated below.
The right end of the rod moves back and forth along the x-axis
in a manner that suggests a sinusoidal function, but it is not
quite sinusoidal.
The graph below shows the location of the right end of the rod
as a function of time, together with the best approximating sinusoidal
function so we can see that the right end of the rod does
not have sinusoidal motion.
It is very close.
