Examples of surfaces gained by variation of pedal surfaces in \(E^{n+1}\) (Q717701)

Let \(M\) be a hypersurface in \(E^{n+1}\), and denote by \(M_\pi\) its pedal hypersurface. Recall that \(M_\pi =[\pi(p)\mid p\in M, \pi(p)=-\langle x(p),N(p)\rangle N(p)]\), where \(N\) is the unit normal of \(M\). The authors obtain the variations of the fundamental quantities (the metric, the normal vector and second fundamental form) of \(M_\pi\). Next, they present some examples of variations of \(M_\pi\) in \(E^3\): the pedal surface of the unit sphere, of the torus, of the ellipsoid, of the saddle, of the catenoid, of the helicoid, of the hyperboloid with one sheet and of the hyperboloid with two sheets. All the images are obtained by using \texttt{Mathematica 3.0}. Some small applications are given for pedal hypersurfaces in the cases of the cylinder and the hypercone in \(E^4\).