Spirographs
Roll one circle around another and trace the curve a pen draws.
Apurva Nakade
July 13, 2026
Pictures drawn by mathematics. Spirographs trace the path of a pen on one circle rolling around another, a curve whose whole shape is decided by the ratio of the two radii. Cats on Ladders follows a cat sitting on a sliding ladder, and the curves it traces turn out to be the same rolling-circle curves.
Visual Math Lab would like to count page visits. It tells us which topics are being read, so that effort goes where it is most useful. No advertising, no personal information, and nothing shared with third parties. The mathematics you enter never leaves your browser. What is collected.
No cookies are stored by this site, at any point, for any purpose. This notice is shown because GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive require opt-in consent before any tracking technology runs, cookies or not.