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Catacaustic
In differential geometry, a caustic is the envelope of rays either reflected or refracted by a manifold. It is related to the concept of caustics in geometric optics. The ray's source may be a point (called the radiant) or parallel rays from a point at infinity, in which case a direction vector of the rays must be specified. More generally, especially as applied to symplectic geometry and singularity theory, a caustic is the critical value set of a Lagrangian mapping where is a Lagrangian immersion of a Lagrangian submanifold ''L'' into a symplectic manifold ''M'', and is a Lagrangian fibration of the symplectic manifold ''M''. The caustic is a subset of the Lagrangian fibration's base space ''B''. Explanation Concentration of light, especially sunlight, can burn. The word ''caustic'', in fact, comes from the Greek καυστός, burnt, via the Latin ''causticus'', burning. A common situation where caustics are visible is when light shines on a drinking glass. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caustic (optics)
In optics, a caustic or caustic network is the envelope of light rays which have been reflected or refracted by a curved surface or object, or the projection of that envelope of rays on another surface. The caustic is a curve or surface to which each of the light rays is tangent, defining a boundary of an envelope of rays as a curve of concentrated light. Therefore, in the photo to the right, caustics can be seen as patches of light or their bright edges. These shapes often have cusp singularities. Explanation Concentration of light, especially sunlight, can burn. The word ''caustic'', in fact, comes from the Greek καυστός, burnt, via the Latin ''causticus'', burning. A common situation where caustics are visible is when light shines on a drinking glass. The glass casts a shadow, but also produces a curved region of bright light. In ideal circumstances (including perfectly parallel rays, as if from a point source at infinity), a nephroid-shaped patch of light ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Circle Caustic
A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is constant. The distance between any point of the circle and the centre is called the radius. Usually, the radius is required to be a positive number. A circle with r=0 (a single point) is a degenerate case. This article is about circles in Euclidean geometry, and, in particular, the Euclidean plane, except where otherwise noted. Specifically, a circle is a simple closed curve that divides the plane into two regions: an interior and an exterior. In everyday use, the term "circle" may be used interchangeably to refer to either the boundary of the figure, or to the whole figure including its interior; in strict technical usage, the circle is only the boundary and the whole figure is called a '' disc''. A circle may also be defined as a special kin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Base Space
In mathematics, and particularly topology, a fiber bundle (or, in Commonwealth English: fibre bundle) is a space that is a product space, but may have a different topological structure. Specifically, the similarity between a space E and a product space B \times F is defined using a continuous surjective map, \pi : E \to B, that in small regions of E behaves just like a projection from corresponding regions of B \times F to B. The map \pi, called the projection or submersion of the bundle, is regarded as part of the structure of the bundle. The space E is known as the total space of the fiber bundle, B as the base space, and F the fiber. In the ''trivial'' case, E is just B \times F, and the map \pi is just the projection from the product space to the first factor. This is called a trivial bundle. Examples of non-trivial fiber bundles include the Möbius strip and Klein bottle, as well as nontrivial covering spaces. Fiber bundles, such as the tangent bundle of a manifold ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Last Geometric Statement Of Jacobi
In differential geometry the last geometric statement of Jacobi is a conjecture named after Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi. According to this conjecture: ''Every Caustic (mathematics), caustic from any point p on an ellipsoid other than umbilical points has exactly four cusps''. While numerical experiments had indicated the statement is true, it wasn’t until 2004 that it was proven rigorously by Itoh and Kiyohara. It has since been extended to a wider class of surfaces beyond the ellipsoid. See also * Four-vertex theorem References Differential geometry Algebraic geometry Conjectures that have been proved {{differential-geometry-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cut Locus (Riemannian Manifold)
In Riemannian geometry, the cut locus of a point p in a manifold is roughly the set of all other points for which there are multiple minimizing geodesics connecting them from p, but it may contain additional points where the minimizing geodesic is unique, under certain circumstances. The distance function from ''p'' is a smooth function except at the point ''p'' itself and the cut locus. Definition Fix a point p in a complete Riemannian manifold (M,g), and consider the tangent space T_pM. It is a standard result that for sufficiently small v in T_p M, the curve defined by the Riemannian exponential map, \gamma(t) = \exp_p(tv) for t belonging to the interval ,1/math> is a minimizing geodesic, and is the unique minimizing geodesic connecting the two endpoints. Here \exp_p denotes the exponential map from p. The cut locus of p in the tangent space is defined to be the set of all vectors v in T_pM such that \gamma(t)=\exp_p(tv) is a minimizing geodesic for t \in ,1/math> but fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parabola
In mathematics, a parabola is a plane curve which is mirror-symmetrical and is approximately U-shaped. It fits several superficially different mathematical descriptions, which can all be proved to define exactly the same curves. One description of a parabola involves a point (the focus) and a line (the directrix). The focus does not lie on the directrix. The parabola is the locus of points in that plane that are equidistant from both the directrix and the focus. Another description of a parabola is as a conic section, created from the intersection of a right circular conical surface and a plane parallel to another plane that is tangential to the conical surface. The line perpendicular to the directrix and passing through the focus (that is, the line that splits the parabola through the middle) is called the "axis of symmetry". The point where the parabola intersects its axis of symmetry is called the "vertex" and is the point where the parabola is most sharply curved. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cramer's Rule
In linear algebra, Cramer's rule is an explicit formula for the solution of a system of linear equations with as many equations as unknowns, valid whenever the system has a unique solution. It expresses the solution in terms of the determinants of the (square) coefficient matrix and of matrices obtained from it by replacing one column by the column vector of right-sides of the equations. It is named after Gabriel Cramer (1704–1752), who published the rule for an arbitrary number of unknowns in 1750, although Colin Maclaurin also published special cases of the rule in 1748 (and possibly knew of it as early as 1729). Cramer's rule implemented in a naive way is computationally inefficient for systems of more than two or three equations. In the case of equations in unknowns, it requires computation of determinants, while Gaussian elimination produces the result with the same computational complexity as the computation of a single determinant. Cramer's rule can also be nume ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Linear System
In systems theory, a linear system is a mathematical model of a system based on the use of a linear operator. Linear systems typically exhibit features and properties that are much simpler than the nonlinear case. As a mathematical abstraction or idealization, linear systems find important applications in automatic control theory, signal processing, and telecommunications. For example, the propagation medium for wireless communication systems can often be modeled by linear systems. Definition A general deterministic system can be described by an operator, that maps an input, as a function of to an output, a type of black box description. A system is linear if and only if it satisfies the superposition principle, or equivalently both the additivity and homogeneity properties, without restrictions (that is, for all inputs, all scaling constants and all time.) The superposition principle means that a linear combination of inputs to the system produces a linear combination ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evolute
In the differential geometry of curves, the evolute of a curve is the locus of all its centers of curvature. That is to say that when the center of curvature of each point on a curve is drawn, the resultant shape will be the evolute of that curve. The evolute of a circle is therefore a single point at its center. Equivalently, an evolute is the envelope of the normals to a curve. The evolute of a curve, a surface, or more generally a submanifold, is the caustic of the normal map. Let be a smooth, regular submanifold in . For each point in and each vector , based at and normal to , we associate the point . This defines a Lagrangian map, called the normal map. The caustic of the normal map is the evolute of . Evolutes are closely connected to involutes: A curve is the evolute of any of its involutes. History Apollonius ( 200 BC) discussed evolutes in Book V of his ''Conics''. However, Huygens is sometimes credited with being the first to study them (1673). Huygens ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wavelength
In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, troughs, or zero crossings, and is a characteristic of both traveling waves and standing waves, as well as other spatial wave patterns. The inverse of the wavelength is called the spatial frequency. Wavelength is commonly designated by the Greek letter ''lambda'' (λ). The term ''wavelength'' is also sometimes applied to modulated waves, and to the sinusoidal envelopes of modulated waves or waves formed by interference of several sinusoids. Assuming a sinusoidal wave moving at a fixed wave speed, wavelength is inversely proportional to frequency of the wave: waves with higher frequencies have shorter wavelengths, and lower frequencies have longer wavelengths. Wavelength depends on the medium (for example, vacuum, air, or water) that a wav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rainbow
A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly opposite the Sun. Rainbows can be full circles. However, the observer normally sees only an arc formed by illuminated droplets above the ground, and centered on a line from the Sun to the observer's eye. In a primary rainbow, the arc shows red on the outer part and violet on the inner side. This rainbow is caused by light being refracted when entering a droplet of water, then reflected inside on the back of the droplet and refracted again when leaving it. In a double rainbow, a second arc is seen outside the primary arc, and has the order of its colours reversed, with red on the inner side of the arc. This is caused by the light being reflected twice on the inside of the drop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
