thumb|300px|Branch for positive The lituus spiral is a spiral in which the angle is inversely proportional to the square of the radius .
This spiral, which has two branches depending on the sign of, is asymptotic to the axis. Its points of inflexion are at
(\theta,r)=\left(\tfrac12,\pm\sqrt{2k}\right).
The curve was named for the ancient Roman lituus by Roger Cotes in a collection of papers entitled Harmonia Mensurarum (1722), which was published six years after his death.
The representations of the lituus spiral in polar coordinates is given by the equation
r=
a | |
\sqrt{\theta |
where and .
The lituus spiral with the polar coordinates can be converted to Cartesian coordinates like any other spiral with the relationships and . With this conversion we get the parametric representations of the curve:
\begin{align} x&=
a | |
\sqrt{\theta |
These equations can in turn be rearranged to an equation in and :
y | |
x |
=\tan\left(
a2 | |
x2+y2 |
\right).
y
x
y | |
x |
=
| ||||
|
r=
a | |
\sqrt{\theta |
\theta=
a2 | |
r2 |
y | |
x |
=\tan\left(
a2 | |
r2 |
\right).
r=\sqrt{x2+y2}
y | |
x |
=\tan\left(
a2 | |
\left(\sqrt{x2+y2 |
\right)2}\right) ⇒
y | |
x |
=\tan\left(
a2 | |
x2+y2 |
\right).
The curvature of the lituus spiral can be determined using the formula
\kappa=\left(8\theta2-2\right)\left(
\theta | |
1+4\theta2 |
| ||||
\right) |
In general, the arc length of the lituus spiral cannot be expressed as a closed-form expression, but the arc length of the lituus spiral can be represented as a formula using the Gaussian hypergeometric function:
L=2\sqrt{\theta} ⋅ \operatorname{2F1}\left(-
1 | |
2 |
,-
1 | |
4 |
;
3 | |
4 |
;-
1 | |
4\theta2 |
\right)-2\sqrt{\theta0} ⋅ \operatorname{2F1}\left(-
1 | |
2 |
,-
1 | |
4 |
;
3 | |
4 |
;-
1 | ||||||||
|
\right),
where the arc length is measured from .
The tangential angle of the lituus spiral can be determined using the formula
\phi=\theta-\arctan2\theta.