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Add points of tangency along a helix?

Posted 7 years ago

Currently I have a helix wrapping 3 times as it rises from [0, 2*Pi]. I'm supposed to use the Table command to create a list of formulas for the tangent lines to use inside ParametricPlot3D. Then I would just show the points of tangency spaced at (.1 * Pi) but I have no idea how to do this. The helix also has a radius of 4 if that helps clear things up.
enter image description here

The Mathematica code I currently have is as follows:

r[t_] := {4*Cos[3*t], 4*Sin[3*t], t};
         helix = ParametricPlot3D[r[t], {t, 0, 2*Pi},
         PlotStyle -> {Red, Thick}, AxesLabel -> {" x", "y", "z"},  BoxRatios -> {1, 1, 2}]
POSTED BY: Noah Bray
3 Replies
Posted 7 years ago

Well, it is homework. But here's a hint:

In[25]:= helix = {4 Cos[3 t], 4 Sin[3 t], t};

In[26]:= tangentVectors = D[helix, t]

Out[26]= {-12 Sin[3 t], 12 Cos[3 t], 1}
POSTED BY: David Keith

Thank you very much! I was able to create the tangent lines along the helix.

POSTED BY: Noah Bray
Posted 7 years ago

Noah, how did you do it?

POSTED BY: v z
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