Deborah R. Fowler

Pythagorean theorem at work

Updated Nov 16 2013 Updated March 16 2026
Pythagorean in wiki is defined as "pertaining to the ancient lonain mathematician, philospher, and music theorist Pythagoras". Most importantly here, the Pythagorean theorem will be used to look like we are driving a train by a rod (really we are driving the rod by the wheel).

Fun with trigonometry!

Here is an excellent application using the pythagorean theorem and the definition of cosine.

Basic train motion explanation here pdf.
Sample hip file trainBacisFromWheel.hipnc (H12.5.469)