Draw an Archimedean Spiral

An Archimedean spiral (also known as an arithmetic spiral) is defined by the path of a point that gets farther from a fixed point at a constant rate as it rotates about the fixed point with a constant angular velocity. A string wrapped around an object unwinds in an Archimedean spiral.

Materials

• Cardboard
  
• String
  
• Tape
  
• Pen or marker
  

Steps

1. Tape a piece of paper onto a piece of cardboard.
   
2. Push a pencil up through the cardboard and piece of paper and tape it in place if necessary.
   
3. Tape a piece of string to the pencil and tie a loop at the end of the string.
   
4. Wind the string onto the pencil and hook the tip of the pen into the loop.
   
5. Keeping the string taut, draw the spiral as you move your pen around the pencil.