Curvilinear Polygons

Curvilinear Polygons

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The Arc drawing tool draw_arc_button  lets you make curvilinear polygons for which you can assign fill properties and find areas.  There are some limitations, however.  Since you can't construct a point on two intersecting curves (except for circles), you have to connect curves with line segments.  If you want to connect two arcs, you have to first connect them with a line and move it to the intersection like this:

curvilinear parab 

To make a curvilinear polygon of the intersecting parabolas here are the steps:

  • Attach two lines.  
  • Make endpoints C and D -t point proportional along the curves.
  • Make endpoints A and B t point proportional along the curves.
  • Draw the two arcs - select Draw / Arc, from C to A and D to B.
  • Select the sides and arcs of the polygon in order and click Construct / Polygon.

curvilinear parab2 

  • Set t=2 in the Variables toolbox and the lines will become the intersection points.

    curvilinear parab3 

 

It's easier with circles because you can place points on their intersections:

intersecting circles1