tractrix

Definitions

noun A transcendental curve invented by Christian Huygens (1629–95), the property of which is that the distances along the different tangents from the points of contact to the intersections of a certain line are all equal.

noun (Geom.) A curve such that the part of the tangent between the point of tangency and a given straight line is constant; -- so called because it was conceived as described by the motion of one end of a tangent line as the other end was drawn along the given line.

noun The curve that satisfies the following property: That segment of the tangent line that lies between the point of tangency and a fixed line has length independent of the point of tangency chosen.

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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I found by experiment that it is neither, but an approximation to the tractrix (a modification of the catenary), if anything definite; as indeed one, on thinking over the matter, might feel certain it would be -- the tractrix being the curve of least friction.

Men of Invention and Industry Samuel Smiles 1858
This had led, through the work of Leonardo (on the catenary-tractrix matter), into the work of Kepler, which, in turn, led into Leibniz's uniquely original discovery of the principle of the calculus, and the revision of that discovery by Leibniz, based upon the work of Pierre de Fermat, which was carried out by Leibniz's collaboration with Jean Bernouilli in defining a universal physical principle of least action.

LaRouche's Latest 2009
Santa Maria del Fiore, and the development of the pairing of the catenary and tractrix relationship by Leonardo da Vinci.

LaRouche's Latest EIR News Service Inc. <eirns@larouchepub.com> 2009
De Docta Ignorantia; Leonardo da Vinci (e.g., the use of the relatively least-action physical curve, the catenary-tractrix, as a principle of construction

LaRouche's Latest 2009