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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 ...
Slope illustrated for y = (3/2)x − 1.Click on to enlarge Slope of a line in coordinates system, from f(x) = −12x + 2 to f(x) = 12x + 2. The slope of a line in the plane containing the x and y axes is generally represented by the letter m, [5] and is defined as the change in the y coordinate divided by the corresponding change in the x coordinate, between two distinct points on the line.
The method hinges on the observation that the radius of a circle is always normal to the circle itself. With this in mind Descartes would construct a circle that was tangent to a given curve. He could then use the radius at the point of intersection to find the slope of a normal line, and from this one can easily find the slope of a tangent line.
Historically, the curvature of a differentiable curve was defined through the osculating circle, which is the circle that best approximates the curve at a point. More precisely, given a point P on a curve, every other point Q of the curve defines a circle (or sometimes a line) passing through Q and tangent to the curve at P.
A quadratrix in the first quadrant (x, y) is a curve with y = ρ sin θ equal to the fraction of the quarter circle with radius r determined by the radius through the curve point. Since this fraction is 2 r θ π {\displaystyle {\frac {2r\theta }{\pi }}} , the curve is given by ρ ( θ ) = 2 r θ π sin θ {\displaystyle \rho (\theta ...
Curvature is usually measured in radius of curvature.A small circle can be easily laid out by just using radius of curvature, but degree of curvature is more convenient for calculating and laying out the curve if the radius is as large as a kilometer or mile, as is needed for large scale works like roads and railroads.
The following can be used to find the versine of a given constant radius curve: [2] The Hallade method is to use the chord to continuously measure the versine in an overlapping pattern along the curve. The versine values for the perfect circular curve would have the same number. [3]
It is a (non-linear) curve which a circle of radius a rolling on a straight line, with its center at the x axis, intersects perpendicularly at all times. The function admits a horizontal asymptote. The curve is symmetrical with respect to the y-axis. The curvature radius is r = a cot x / y .