I still feel that the picture on back of the $20 looks physically wrong. Does anyone else agree? Maybe it's neither a parabola nor a catenary. Jim On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 3:31 PM, Adam P. Goucher <apgoucher@gmx.com> wrote:
Catenaries and parabolae are only distinguishable at large scales:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Comparison_catenary_parabola.svg
----- Original Message ----- From: James Propp Sent: 03/18/13 07:03 PM To: math-fun Subject: [math-fun] Twenty-dollar question
Is the hanging chain on the back of the $20 bill mathematically correct? It looks more like a parabola than a catenary to me.
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