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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 ...
In the following equations, denotes the sagitta (the depth or height of the arc), equals the radius of the circle, and the length of the chord spanning the base of the arc. As 1 2 l {\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{2}}l} and r − s {\displaystyle r-s} are two sides of a right triangle with r {\displaystyle r} as the hypotenuse , the Pythagorean ...
The circle with center at Q and with radius R is called the osculating circle to the curve γ at the point P. If C is a regular space curve then the osculating circle is defined in a similar way, using the principal normal vector N .
Intuitively, the curvature describes for any part of a curve how much the curve direction changes over a small distance travelled (e.g. angle in rad/m), so it is a measure of the instantaneous rate of change of direction of a point that moves on the curve: the larger the curvature, the larger this rate of change.
This curve will in general have different curvatures for different normal planes at p. The principal curvatures at p, denoted k 1 and k 2, are the maximum and minimum values of this curvature. Here the curvature of a curve is by definition the reciprocal of the radius of the osculating circle. The curvature is taken to be positive if the curve ...
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 equation defining a plane curve expressed in polar coordinates is known as a polar equation. In many cases, such an equation can simply be specified by defining r as a function of φ. The resulting curve then consists of points of the form (r(φ), φ) and can be regarded as the graph of the polar function r.
The relationship between speed and tilt can be calculated mathematically. We start with the formula for a balancing centripetal force: θ is the angle by which the train is tilted due to the cant, r is the curve radius in meters, v is the speed in meters per second, and g is the standard gravity, approximately equal to 9.81 m/s²: