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Contact (mathematics)
In mathematics, two functions have a contact of order ''k'' if, at a point ''P'', they have the same value and ''k'' equal derivatives. This is an equivalence relation, whose equivalence classes are generally called jets. The point of osculation is also called the double cusp. Contact is a geometric notion; it can be defined algebraically as a valuation. One speaks also of curves and geometric objects having ''k''-th order contact at a point: this is also called ''osculation'' (i.e. kissing), generalising the property of being tangent. (Here the derivatives are considered with respect to arc length.) An osculating curve from a given family of curves is a curve that has the highest possible order of contact with a given curve at a given point; for instance a tangent line is an osculating curve from the family of lines, and has first-order contact with the given curve; an osculating circle is an osculating curve from the family of circles, and has second-order contact (same tan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vertex (curve)
In the geometry of plane curves, a vertex is a point of where the first derivative of curvature is zero. This is typically a local maximum or minimum of curvature, and some authors define a vertex to be more specifically a local extremum of curvature. However, other special cases may occur, for instance when the second derivative is also zero, or when the curvature is constant. For space curves, on the other hand, a vertex is a point where the torsion vanishes. Examples A hyperbola has two vertices, one on each branch; they are the closest of any two points lying on opposite branches of the hyperbola, and they lie on the principal axis. On a parabola, the sole vertex lies on the axis of symmetry and in a quadratic of the form: :ax^2 + bx + c\,\! it can be found by completing the square or by differentiation., p. 127. On an ellipse, two of the four vertices lie on the major axis and two lie on the minor axis. For a circle, which has constant curvature, every point is a verte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics with the major subdisciplines of number theory, algebra, geometry, and analysis, respectively. There is no general consensus among mathematicians about a common definition for their academic discipline. Most mathematical activity involves the discovery of properties of abstract objects and the use of pure reason to prove them. These objects consist of either abstractions from nature orin modern mathematicsentities that are stipulated to have certain properties, called axioms. A ''proof'' consists of a succession of applications of deductive rules to already established results. These results include previously proved theorems, axioms, andin case of abstraction from naturesome basic properties that are considered true starting points of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classical Mechanics
Classical mechanics is a physical theory describing the motion of macroscopic objects, from projectiles to parts of machinery, and astronomical objects, such as spacecraft, planets, stars, and galaxies. For objects governed by classical mechanics, if the present state is known, it is possible to predict how it will move in the future (determinism), and how it has moved in the past (reversibility). The earliest development of classical mechanics is often referred to as Newtonian mechanics. It consists of the physical concepts based on foundational works of Sir Isaac Newton, and the mathematical methods invented by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Leonhard Euler, and other contemporaries, in the 17th century to describe the motion of bodies under the influence of a system of forces. Later, more abstract methods were developed, leading to the reformulations of classical mechanics known as Lagrangian mechanics and Hamiltonian mechanics. These advances, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Four-vertex Theorem
The four-vertex theorem of geometry states that the curvature along a simple, closed, smooth plane curve has at least four local extrema (specifically, at least two local maxima and at least two local minima). The name of the theorem derives from the convention of calling an extreme point of the curvature function a vertex. This theorem has many generalizations, including a version for space curves where a vertex is defined as a point of vanishing torsion. Definition and examples The curvature at any point of a smooth curve in the plane can be defined as the reciprocal of the radius of an osculating circle at that point, or as the norm of the second derivative of a parametric representation of the curve, parameterized consistently with the length along the curve. For the vertices of a curve to be well-defined, the curvature itself should vary continuously, as happens for curves of smoothness C^2. A vertex is then a local maximum or local minimum of curvature. If the curvature ... [...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] |
Locus (mathematics)
In geometry, a locus (plural: ''loci'') (Latin word for "place", "location") is a set of all points (commonly, a line, a line segment, a curve or a surface), whose location satisfies or is determined by one or more specified conditions.. In other words, the set of the points that satisfy some property is often called the ''locus of a point'' satisfying this property. The use of the singular in this formulation is a witness that, until the end of the 19th century, mathematicians did not consider infinite sets. Instead of viewing lines and curves as sets of points, they viewed them as places where a point may be ''located'' or may move. History and philosophy Until the beginning of the 20th century, a geometrical shape (for example a curve) was not considered as an infinite set of points; rather, it was considered as an entity on which a point may be located or on which it moves. Thus a circle in the Euclidean plane was defined as the ''locus'' of a point that is at a given dist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inflection Point
In differential calculus and differential geometry, an inflection point, point of inflection, flex, or inflection (British English: inflexion) is a point on a smooth plane curve at which the curvature changes sign. In particular, in the case of the graph of a function, it is a point where the function changes from being concave (concave downward) to convex (concave upward), or vice versa. For the graph of a function of differentiability class (''f'', its first derivative ''f, and its second derivative ''f'''', exist and are continuous), the condition ''f'' = 0'' can also be used to find an inflection point since a point of ''f'' = 0'' must be passed to change ''f'''' from a positive value (concave upward) to a negative value (concave downward) or vice versa as ''f'''' is continuous; an inflection point of the curve is where ''f'' = 0'' and changes its sign at the point (from positive to negative or from negative to positive). A point where the second derivative vanishes but do ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smooth Function
In mathematical analysis, the smoothness of a function (mathematics), function is a property measured by the number of Continuous function, continuous Derivative (mathematics), derivatives it has over some domain, called ''differentiability class''. At the very minimum, a function could be considered smooth if it is differentiable everywhere (hence continuous). At the other end, it might also possess derivatives of all Order of derivation, orders in its Domain of a function, domain, in which case it is said to be infinitely differentiable and referred to as a C-infinity function (or C^ function). Differentiability classes Differentiability class is a classification of functions according to the properties of their derivatives. It is a measure of the highest order of derivative that exists and is continuous for a function. Consider an open set U on the real line and a function f defined on U with real values. Let ''k'' be a non-negative integer. The function f is said to be of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Curvature
In mathematics, curvature is any of several strongly related concepts in geometry. Intuitively, the curvature is the amount by which a curve deviates from being a straight line, or a surface deviates from being a plane. For curves, the canonical example is that of a circle, which has a curvature equal to the reciprocal of its radius. Smaller circles bend more sharply, and hence have higher curvature. The curvature ''at a point'' of a differentiable curve is the curvature of its osculating circle, that is the circle that best approximates the curve near this point. The curvature of a straight line is zero. In contrast to the tangent, which is a vector quantity, the curvature at a point is typically a scalar quantity, that is, it is expressed by a single real number. For surfaces (and, more generally for higher-dimensional manifolds), that are embedded in a Euclidean space, the concept of curvature is more complex, as it depends on the choice of a direction on the surface or man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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