To cause a pendulous body to oscillate in a given cycloid.
Let there be given within the globe QVS described with the centre C, the cycloid QRS, bisected in R, and meeting the superficies of the globe with its extreme points Q and S on either hand. Let there be drawn CR bisecting the arc QS in O, and let it be produced to A in such sort that CA may be to CO as CO to CR. About the centre C, with the interval CA, let there be described an exterior globe DAF; and within this globe, by a wheel whose diameter is AO, let there be described two semi-cycloids AQ, AS, touching the interior globe in Q and S, and meeting the exterior globe in A. From that point A, with a thread APT in length equal to the line AR, let the body T depend, and oscillate in such manner between the two semi-cycloids AQ, AS, that, as often as the pendulum parts from the perpendicular AR, the upper part of the thread AP may be applied to that semi-cycloid APS towards which the motion tends, and fold itself round that curve line, as if it were some solid obstacle, the remaining part of the same thread PT which has not yet touched the semi-cycloid continuing straight. Then will the weight T oscillate in the given cycloid QRS. Q.E.F.
For let the thread PT meet the cycloid QRS in T, and the circle QOS in V, and let CV be drawn; and to the rectilinear part of the thread PT from the extreme points P and T let there be erected the perpendiculars BP, TW, meeting the right line CV in B and W. It is evident, from the construction and generation of the similar figures AS, SR, that those perpendiculars PB, TW, cut off from CV the lengths VB, VW equal the diameters of the wheels OA, OR. Therefore TP is to VP (which is double the sine of the angle VBP when ^(1/2)BV is radius) as BW to BV, or AO + OR to AO, that is (since CA and CO, CO and CR, and by division AO and OR are proportional), as CA + CO to CA, or, if BV be bisected in E, as 2CE to CB. Therefore (by Cor. 1, Prop. XLIX), the length of the rectilinear part of the thread PT is always equal to the arc of the cycloid PS, and the whole thread APT is always equal to the half of the cycloid APS, that is (by Cor. 2, Prop. XLIX), to the length AR. And therefore contrariwise, if the string remain always equal to the length AR, the point T will always move in the given cycloid QRS. Q.E.D.
COR. The string AR is equal to the semi-cycloid AS, and therefore has the same ratio to AC the semi-diameter of the exterior globe as the like semi-cycloid SR has to CO the semi-diameter of the interior globe.