This Archimedean spiral is distinguished from the logarithmic spiral by the fact that successive arms have a fixed distance (equal to 2&pib if θ is measured in radians), while in a logarithmic spiral these distances form a geometric progression.
Note that the Archimedean spiral has two arms, one for θ > 0 and one for θ < 0. The two arms are smoothly connected at the origin. Only one arm is shown on the accompanying graph. Taking the mirror image of this arm at the y axis will yield the other arm.
Sometimes the term Archimedean spiral is used for the more general group of spirals