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An astroid is the four-cusped plane curve parametrized by $x=a{\cos }^{3}t$, $y=a{\sin }^{3}t$ for $a>0$. It appears as the relative trajectory in the astroid motion of a harmonic oscillator in a rotating frame. The parametrization has zero first derivative at the cusps while remaining smooth as a function of its parameter.

The PDF gives initial position $(x^{\prime },y^{\prime },z^{\prime })=(1,0,0)$ and initial rotating-frame velocity zero. Use those values; the TeX erroneously places dots over the position coordinates.

For rotation about the third axis, the supplied acceleration relation and Newton's second law give the equations of motion in a rotating frameThus $z^{\prime }=0$. Set $\zeta =x^{\prime }+i{y}^{\prime }$ to combine the planar equations:The two characteristic roots are $i\omega$ and $-3i\omega$. From $\zeta (0)=1$ and $\dot{\zeta }(0)=0$,The triple-angle formulas therefore give the particularly simple astroid motion of a harmonic oscillator in a rotating frameThe orbit satisfies $|x^{\prime }{|}^{2/3}+|y^{\prime }{|}^{2/3}=1$; the zero speed at each cusp is consistent with the smooth time-parametrized motion.

Its rotating-frame speed isHence, for $\omega >0$, the first maximum occurs at $t=\pi /(4\omega )$, andThe maximum repeats periodically. For a signed negative angular frequency, use $\pi /(4|\omega |)$ and $3|\omega |/2$; at $\omega =0$ the particle remains at rest.