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A standard chord length is used: in the UK this is conventionally 30 metres, or sometimes 20 metres. Half chords, i.e. 15 metre or 10 metre intervals, are marked on the datum rail using chalk. The string, which is one full chord long, is then held taut with one end on two marks at each end of a chord, and the offset at the half chord mark measured.
Other lengths may be used—such as 100 metres (330 ft) where SI is favoured or a shorter length for sharper curves. Where degree of curvature is based on 100 units of arc length, the conversion between degree of curvature and radius is Dr = 18000/π ≈ 5729.57795 , where D is degree and r is radius.
Thus the length of a curve is a non-negative real number. Usually no curves are considered which are partly spacelike and partly timelike. In theory of relativity, arc length of timelike curves (world lines) is the proper time elapsed along the world line, and arc length of a spacelike curve the proper distance along the curve.
has a length equal to one and is thus a unit tangent vector. If the curve is twice differentiable, that is, if the second derivatives of x and y exist, then the derivative of T(s) exists. This vector is normal to the curve, its length is the curvature κ(s), and it is oriented toward the center of curvature. That is,
Since a convex curve intersects almost every line either twice or not at all, the unoriented Crofton formula for convex curves can be stated without numerical factors: the measure of the set of straight lines which intersect a convex curve is equal to its length. The same formula (with the same multiplicative constants) apply for hyperbolic ...
This curve has total curvature 6 π, and index/turning number 3, though it only has winding number 2 about p. In mathematical study of the differential geometry of curves, the total curvature of an immersed plane curve is the integral of curvature along a curve taken with respect to arc length: =.
Differential geometry of curves is the branch of geometry that deals with smooth curves in the plane and the Euclidean space by methods of differential and integral calculus. Many specific curves have been thoroughly investigated using the synthetic approach .
The coordinate-independent definition of the square of the line element ds in an n-dimensional Riemannian or Pseudo Riemannian manifold (in physics usually a Lorentzian manifold) is the "square of the length" of an infinitesimal displacement [2] (in pseudo Riemannian manifolds possibly negative) whose square root should be used for computing curve length: = = (,) where g is the metric tensor ...