Talbot's curve

trigonometric

h17talbf.gif (2086 bytes)

As you might expect the curve was investigated as first by Talbot.

The pedal of the curve is the ellipse.
The traditional form of the Talbot's curve is for parameter a lying between 1/2 and 1.
The parameter a is equal to the square of the eccentricity of the ellipse from which the curve is the pedal.