Adjust sliders to alter arch Improve the arch To see 2 pure catenary curve, set thickness to 1
McD's Golden Arches are 2 weighted catenary curves. Each catenary curve is drawn using e, natural log: (eˣ - e⁻ˣ )/-2 Shape's the same as hanging chains ("catenary" means chain in Italian) but inverted It's a strong arch form in buildings and bridges A regular catenary's the curve of a hanging chain, a uniform chain, whereas a weighted catenary is thicker at the two bases (or it could be thicker in the middle). For example, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis is wider at the bottoms , thinner at the top, to accommodate the increasing load at the base. It's a different shape than a parabola One can express it also as cosh x (derived from a hyperbola): Cosh x = (eˣ - e⁻ˣ )/2 Make the 2 negative to invert But e is a beautiful function
