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Arc length s of a logarithmic spiral as a function of its parameter θ. Arc length is the distance between two points along a section of a curve. Development of a formulation of arc length suitable for applications to mathematics and the sciences is a focus of calculus.
Such a parametric equation completely determines the curve, without the need of any interpretation of t as time, and is thus called a parametric equation of the curve (this is sometimes abbreviated by saying that one has a parametric curve). One similarly gets the parametric equation of a surface by considering functions of two parameters t and u.
In the case of a single parameter, parametric equations are commonly used to express the trajectory of a moving point, in which case, the parameter is often, but not necessarily, time, and the point describes a curve, called a parametric curve. In the case of two parameters, the point describes a surface, called a parametric surface.
For a curve C given by a sufficiently smooth parametric equations (twice continuously differentiable), the osculating circle may be obtained by a limiting procedure: it is the limit of the circles passing through three distinct points on C as these points approach P. [3]
Surfaces that occur in two of the main theorems of vector calculus, Stokes' theorem and the divergence theorem, are frequently given in a parametric form. The curvature and arc length of curves on the surface, surface area, differential geometric invariants such as the first and second fundamental forms, Gaussian, mean, and principal curvatures ...
The semicubical parabola was discovered in 1657 by William Neile who computed its arc length. Although the lengths of some other non-algebraic curves including the logarithmic spiral and cycloid had already been computed (that is, those curves had been rectified ), the semicubical parabola was the first algebraic curve (excluding the line and ...
The Fermat spiral with polar equation = can be converted to the Cartesian coordinates (x, y) by using the standard conversion formulas x = r cos φ and y = r sin φ.Using the polar equation for the spiral to eliminate r from these conversions produces parametric equations for one branch of the curve:
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 ...