I was trying to figure out how to make a part circle another part, and I eventually found a script online that allows you to do this. I’m not sure how it works though, and I would be happy if anyone could explain to me how this script allows parts to circle around other parts in a perfect circle.
local MainPart = script.Parent
local Part = workspace.Part
local theta = 0
local radius = (Part.Position - MainPart.Position).Magnitude
Part.Position = Vector3.new(MainPart.Position.X, Part.Position.Y, MainPart.Position.Z + radius);
while wait() do
theta +=0.1;
Part.Position = Vector3.new(MainPart.Position.X + radius*math.sin(theta), Part.Position.Y, MainPart.Position.Z + radius*math.cos(theta));
end
The important bit is math.sin and math.cos. These are trigonometry functions that allow you to create a unit circle. (unit in mathematics means it has a distance/magnitude of 1)
math.cos(angle) gives you the x position of a point on a circle at angle. math.sin(angle) gives you the y position. In the code sin and cos are switched around, that only means that the angle is going to be 90 degrees rotated.
Since this creates a unit circle (magnitude of 1), we need to multiply the resulting x and y by the radius of our circle. This gives us the true coordinates of a point on the circle at an angle and radius. Then you can add an X and Y position to change the location of the circle.
So, what you see here is apart of trigonometry. I personally don’t know it full well to use it with a lot of my code, but your script simplifies the uses of such phenomenon.
I’ll try my best to give a brief definition of the trigonometry. So, from how I could understand it, it deals with the uses of the quotient of two sides of a right triangle. And dividing the different sides in different ways can create different results, which those division formulas have names.
And math.sin is a part of those formulas, named Sine, which uses the formula Opposite / Hypotenus. This function/formula is how you’re able to get the perfect angle of a circle without having to do any more complicated calculations. The theta is there as the degrees that the sin needs to convert into radians. If you don’t know what radians are, I suggest you search them up to understand them better… But the basic idealogy is that they turn degrees into a unit (it’ll go to 1).
So, since the theta started at 0 (well, 0.1 since you’ve added it first), the math.sin would return 0.1. But when it goes from 90 and continues, it’ll then start decreasing to 0 again. I would have a trouble time explaining why it does that, so here’s an image to demonstrate.
This is a unit circle. So, basically, 90 degrees is a whole one in the unit circle; the quarter of a circle. Meaning, everytime you increase the number (theta in this case), you’re going around that unit circle… eventually making it back to the 0. This, right here, is why you’re able to make a perfect circle.
And the radius is there if you want a desired radius. So, yeah, I hope this helps!
I’ll link to some more useful resources if this failed to help you. Again, I suck at explaining some things and I know there’s other people out there that definitely is better at explaining this so. Here’s some links:
You mean while it’s running? I don’t. If you move them further away from each other before the script starts though, then it will change the radius because the radius is calculated by the distance between them when the script first starts.
