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Radius of curvature and center of curvature. In differential geometry, the radius of curvature, R, is the reciprocal of the curvature. For a curve, it equals the radius of the circular arc which best approximates the curve at that point. For surfaces, the radius of curvature is the radius of a circle that best fits a normal section or ...
The sphere has the smallest surface area of all surfaces that enclose a given volume, and it encloses the largest volume among all closed surfaces with a given surface area. [11] The sphere therefore appears in nature: for example, bubbles and small water drops are roughly spherical because the surface tension locally minimizes surface area.
The curved surface area of the spherical segment bounded by two parallel disks is the difference of surface areas of their respective spherical caps. For a sphere of radius r {\displaystyle r} , and caps with heights h 1 {\displaystyle h_{1}} and h 2 {\displaystyle h_{2}} , the area is
Radius of curvature sign convention for optical design. Radius of curvature (ROC) has specific meaning and sign convention in optical design. A spherical lens or mirror surface has a center of curvature located either along or decentered from the system local optical axis. The vertex of the lens
where R is the radius of curvature of the optical surface. The sag S ( r ) is the displacement along the optic axis of the surface from the vertex, at distance r {\displaystyle r} from the axis. A good explanation of both this approximate formula and the exact formula can be found here .
If a surface has constant Gaussian curvature, it is called a surface of constant curvature. [52] The unit sphere in E 3 has constant Gaussian curvature +1. The Euclidean plane and the cylinder both have constant Gaussian curvature 0. A unit pseudosphere has constant Gaussian curvature -1 (apart from its equator, that is singular).
When the sagitta is small in comparison to the radius, it may be approximated by the formula [2] s ≈ l 2 8 r . {\displaystyle s\approx {\frac {l^{2}}{8r}}.} Alternatively, if the sagitta is small and the sagitta, radius, and chord length are known, they may be used to estimate the arc length by the formula
In a curved surface such as the sphere, the area of a disc on the surface differs from the area of a disc of the same radius in flat space. This difference (in a suitable limit) is measured by the scalar curvature. The difference in area of a sector of the disc is measured by the Ricci curvature.