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Associate Family
In differential geometry, the associate family (or Bonnet family) of a minimal surface is a one-parameter family of minimal surfaces which share the same Weierstrass data. That is, if the surface has the representation :x_k(\zeta) = \Re \left\ + c_k , \qquad k=1,2,3 the family is described by :x_k(\zeta,\theta) = \Re \left\ + c_k , \qquad \theta \in ,2\pi where \Re indicates the real part of a complex number. For ''θ'' = ''π''/2 the surface is called the conjugate of the ''θ'' = 0 surface. The transformation can be viewed as locally rotating the principal curvature directions. The surface normals of a point with a fixed ''ζ'' remains unchanged as ''θ'' changes; the point itself moves along an ellipse. Some examples of associate surface families are: the catenoid and helicoid family, the Schwarz P, Schwarz D and gyroid family, and the Scherk's first and second surface family. The Enneper surface In differential geometry and algebraic geometry, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Differential Geometry
Differential geometry is a mathematical discipline that studies the geometry of smooth shapes and smooth spaces, otherwise known as smooth manifolds. It uses the techniques of differential calculus, integral calculus, linear algebra and multilinear algebra. The field has its origins in the study of spherical geometry as far back as antiquity. It also relates to astronomy, the geodesy of the Earth, and later the study of hyperbolic geometry by Lobachevsky. The simplest examples of smooth spaces are the plane and space curves and surfaces in the three-dimensional Euclidean space, and the study of these shapes formed the basis for development of modern differential geometry during the 18th and 19th centuries. Since the late 19th century, differential geometry has grown into a field concerned more generally with geometric structures on differentiable manifolds. A geometric structure is one which defines some notion of size, distance, shape, volume, or other rigidifying structu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pierre Ossian Bonnet
Pierre Ossian Bonnet (; 22 December 1819, Montpellier – 22 June 1892, Paris) was a French mathematician. He made some important contributions to the differential geometry of surfaces, including the Gauss–Bonnet theorem. Biography Early years Pierre Bonnet attended the Collège in Montpellier. In 1838 he entered the École Polytechnique in Paris. He also studied at the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées. Middle years In graduating he was offered a post as an engineer. After some thought Bonnet decided on a career in teaching and research in mathematics instead. Turning down the engineering post had not been an easy decision since Bonnet was not well off financially. He had to do private tutoring so that he could afford to accept a position at the Ecole Polytechnique in 1844. One year before this, in 1843, Bonnet had written a paper on the convergence of series with positive terms. Another paper on series in 1849 was to earn him an award from the Brussels Academy. Ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minimal Surface
In mathematics, a minimal surface is a surface that locally minimizes its area. This is equivalent to having zero mean curvature (see definitions below). The term "minimal surface" is used because these surfaces originally arose as surfaces that minimized total surface area subject to some constraint. Physical models of area-minimizing minimal surfaces can be made by dipping a wire frame into a soap solution, forming a soap film, which is a minimal surface whose boundary is the wire frame. However, the term is used for more general surfaces that may self-intersect or do not have constraints. For a given constraint there may also exist several minimal surfaces with different areas (for example, see minimal surface of revolution): the standard definitions only relate to a local optimum, not a global optimum. Definitions Minimal surfaces can be defined in several equivalent ways in R3. The fact that they are equivalent serves to demonstrate how minimal surface theory lies at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weierstrass–Enneper Parameterization
In mathematics, the Weierstrass–Enneper parameterization of minimal surfaces is a classical piece of differential geometry. Alfred Enneper and Karl Weierstrass studied minimal surfaces as far back as 1863. Let f and g be functions on either the entire complex plane or the unit disk, where g is meromorphic and f is analytic, such that wherever g has a pole of order m, f has a zero of order 2m (or equivalently, such that the product f g^2 is holomorphic), and let c_1,c_2,c_3 be constants. Then the surface with coordinates (x_1, x_2, x_3) is minimal, where the x_k are defined using the real part of a complex integral, as follows: \begin x_k(\zeta) &= \Re \left\ + c_k , \qquad k=1,2,3 \\ \varphi_1 &= f(1-g^2)/2 \\ \varphi_2 &= \mathbf f(1+g^2)/2 \\ \varphi_3 &= fg \end The converse is also true: every nonplanar minimal surface defined over a simply connected domain can be given a parametrization of this type. For example, Enneper's surface has , . Parametric surface of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Complex Number
In mathematics, a complex number is an element of a number system that extends the real numbers with a specific element denoted , called the imaginary unit and satisfying the equation i^= -1; every complex number can be expressed in the form a + bi, where and are real numbers. Because no real number satisfies the above equation, was called an imaginary number by René Descartes. For the complex number a+bi, is called the , and is called the . The set of complex numbers is denoted by either of the symbols \mathbb C or . Despite the historical nomenclature "imaginary", complex numbers are regarded in the mathematical sciences as just as "real" as the real numbers and are fundamental in many aspects of the scientific description of the natural world. Complex numbers allow solutions to all polynomial equations, even those that have no solutions in real numbers. More precisely, the fundamental theorem of algebra asserts that every non-constant polynomial equation with real or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Principal Curvature
In differential geometry, the two principal curvatures at a given point of a surface are the maximum and minimum values of the curvature as expressed by the eigenvalues of the shape operator at that point. They measure how the surface bends by different amounts in different directions at that point. Discussion At each point ''p'' of a differentiable surface in 3-dimensional Euclidean space one may choose a unit '' normal vector''. A '' normal plane'' at ''p'' is one that contains the normal vector, and will therefore also contain a unique direction tangent to the surface and cut the surface in a plane curve, called normal section. 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 i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catenoid
In geometry, a catenoid is a type of surface, arising by rotating a catenary curve about an axis (a surface of revolution). It is a minimal surface, meaning that it occupies the least area when bounded by a closed space. It was formally described in 1744 by the mathematician Leonhard Euler. Soap film attached to twin circular rings will take the shape of a catenoid. Because they are members of the same associate family of surfaces, a catenoid can be bent into a portion of a helicoid, and vice versa. Geometry The catenoid was the first non-trivial minimal surface in 3-dimensional Euclidean space to be discovered apart from the plane. The catenoid is obtained by rotating a catenary about its directrix. It was found and proved to be minimal by Leonhard Euler in 1744. Early work on the subject was published also by Jean Baptiste Meusnier. There are only two minimal surfaces of revolution (surfaces of revolution which are also minimal surfaces): the plane and the catenoid. The cat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helicoid
The helicoid, also known as helical surface, after the plane and the catenoid, is the third minimal surface to be known. Description It was described by Euler in 1774 and by Jean Baptiste Meusnier in 1776. Its name derives from its similarity to the helix: for every point on the helicoid, there is a helix contained in the helicoid which passes through that point. Since it is considered that the planar range extends through negative and positive infinity, close observation shows the appearance of two parallel or mirror planes in the sense that if the slope of one plane is traced, the co-plane can be seen to be bypassed or skipped, though in actuality the co-plane is also traced from the opposite perspective. The helicoid is also a ruled surface (and a right conoid), meaning that it is a trace of a line. Alternatively, for any point on the surface, there is a line on the surface passing through it. Indeed, Catalan proved in 1842 that the helicoid and the plane were the only rul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Schwarz Minimal Surface
In differential geometry, the Schwarz minimal surfaces are periodic minimal surfaces originally described by Hermann Schwarz. In the 1880s Schwarz and his student E. R. Neovius described periodic minimal surfaces. They were later named by Alan Schoen in his seminal report that described the gyroid and other triply periodic minimal surfaces. The surfaces were generated using symmetry arguments: given a solution to Plateau's problem for a polygon, reflections of the surface across the boundary lines also produce valid minimal surfaces that can be continuously joined to the original solution. If a minimal surface meets a plane at right angles, then the mirror image in the plane can also be joined to the surface. Hence given a suitable initial polygon inscribed in a unit cell periodic surfaces can be constructed. The Schwarz surfaces have topological genus 3, the minimal genus of triply periodic minimal surfaces. They have been considered as models for periodic nanostructu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gyroid
A gyroid is an infinitely connected Triply periodic minimal surface, triply periodic minimal surface discovered by Alan Schoen in 1970. History and properties The gyroid is the unique non-trivial embedded member of the associate family of the Schwarz minimal surface#Schwarz P .28.22Primitive.22.29, Schwarz P and Schwarz minimal surface#Schwarz D .28.22Diamond.22.29, D surfaces. Its angle of association with respect to the D surface is approximately 38.01°. The gyroid is similar to the lidinoid. The gyroid was discovered in 1970 by NASA scientist Alan Schoen. He calculated the angle of association and gave a convincing demonstration of pictures of intricate plastic models, but did not provide a proof of embeddedness. Schoen noted that the gyroid contains neither straight lines nor planar symmetries. Karcher gave a different, more contemporary treatment of the surface in 1989 using conjugate surface construction. In 1996 Große-Brauckmann and Wohlgemuth proved that it is embed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scherk Surface
In mathematics, a Scherk surface (named after Heinrich Scherk) is an example of a minimal surface. Scherk described two complete embedded minimal surfaces in 1834; his first surface is a doubly periodic surface, his second surface is singly periodic. They were the third non-trivial examples of minimal surfaces (the first two were the catenoid and helicoid). The two surfaces are conjugates of each other. Scherk surfaces arise in the study of certain limiting minimal surface problems and in the study of harmonic diffeomorphisms of hyperbolic space. Scherk's first surface Scherk's first surface is asymptotic to two infinite families of parallel planes, orthogonal to each other, that meet near ''z'' = 0 in a checkerboard pattern of bridging arches. It contains an infinite number of straight vertical lines. Construction of a simple Scherk surface Consider the following minimal surface problem on a square in the Euclidean plane: for a natural number ''n'', find a mini ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
