10/8/2018 15.

4 Computation of Curvature

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15.4 Computation of Curvature

Computation of curvature and the various directions of interest with respect to the curve is quite straightforward, given a
parametric representation of the curve, so that we can instruct a spreadsheet to compute everything here along our curve with
a handful of instructions.

The vector , by the chain rule is is the reciprocal of and also can be written as

Since T is the unit vector in the direction of .

The derivative of this latter expression with respect to t is, by the quotient rule

We can identify with the acceleration of the motion which we denote by a(t).

We need here differentiate |v| with respect to t, which, given that

Putting all this together we find

This result looks somewhat messy but it actually not so bad. Recall that is the projection of a normal to

v. Therefore we have here that is the projection of a normal to v divided by the square of the magnitude of v.

Thus the curvature , which is the magnitude of this vector, is the component of a normal to v divided by the square
of the magnitude of v.

Consider the example of the helix: x = cos t, y = sin t, z = t.

We can compute:

Here a and v are perpendicular, so that we get for all values of t.

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10/8/2018 15.4 Computation of Curvature

The center of curvature is at the reflection of the point on the curve at which we compute it, through the z axis, that is, at the

point with coordinates (-cos t, - sin t, t), a distance 2 (or ) from (cos t, sin t ,t) in the direction of the projection of a normal

to v.

Exercises:

15.1 Show that the curvature of a circle is . (This proves that the radius of curvature is .)

15.2 Find the curvature , position r, and center of curvature at for j = 0 to 700 for the following curve

(using a spreadsheet)

x= cos t, y = cos 2t, z = sin 3 t

Chart it as best you can.

15.3 Set this curve up on the applet. Where is the curvature greatest.

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