Curve traced by a point outside a circle rolling within another circle
In geometry, a hypotrochoid is a roulette traced by a point attached to a circle of radiusr rolling around the inside of a fixed circle of radius R, where the point is a distanced from the center of the interior circle.
where θ is the angle formed by the horizontal and the center of the rolling circle (these are not polar equations because θ is not the polar angle). When measured in radian, θ takes values from 0 to (where LCM is least common multiple).
Special cases include the hypocycloid with d = r and the ellipse with R = 2r and d ≠ r.[2] The eccentricity of the ellipse is