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Focal Surface
For a surface in three dimension the focal surface, surface of centers or evolute is formed by taking the centers of the curvature spheres, which are the tangential spheres whose radii are the reciprocals of one of the principal curvatures at the point of tangency. Equivalently it is the surface formed by the centers of the circles which osculate the curvature lines. As the principal curvatures are the eigenvalues of the second fundamental form, there are two at each point, and these give rise to two points of the focal surface on each normal direction to the surface. Away from umbilical points, these two points of the focal surface are distinct; at umbilical points the two sheets come together. When the surface has a ridge the focal surface has a cuspidal edge, three such edges pass through an elliptical umbilic and only one through a hyperbolic umbilic. At points where the Gaussian curvature is zero, one sheet of the focal surface will have a point at infinity corresponding ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Umbilical Point
In the differential geometry of surfaces in three dimensions, umbilics or umbilical points are points on a surface that are locally spherical. At such points the normal curvatures in all directions are equal, hence, both principal curvatures are equal, and every tangent vector is a ''principal direction''. The name "umbilic" comes from the Latin ''umbilicus'' (navel). Umbilic points generally occur as isolated points in the elliptical region of the surface; that is, where the Gaussian curvature is positive. The sphere is the only surface with non-zero curvature where every point is umbilic. A flat umbilic is an umbilic with zero Gaussian curvature. The monkey saddle is an example of a surface with a flat umbilic and on the plane every point is a flat umbilic. A torus can have no umbilics, but every closed surface of nonzero Euler characteristic, embedded smoothly into Euclidean space, has at least one umbilic. An unproven conjecture of Constantin Carathéodory states that every s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Focus (optics)
In geometrical optics, a focus, also called an image point, is a point where light rays originating from a point on the object converge. Although the focus is conceptually a point, physically the focus has a spatial extent, called the blur circle. This non-ideal focusing may be caused by aberrations of the imaging optics. In the absence of significant aberrations, the smallest possible blur circle is the Airy disc, which is caused by diffraction from the optical system's aperture. Aberrations tend to worsen as the aperture diameter increases, while the Airy circle is smallest for large apertures. An image, or image point or region, is in focus if light from object points is converged almost as much as possible in the image, and out of focus if light is not well converged. The border between these is sometimes defined using a "circle of confusion" criterion. A principal focus or focal point is a special focus: * For a lens, or a spherical or parabolic mirror, it is a point ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Confocal Quadrics
In geometry, two conic sections are called confocal, if they have the same foci. Because ellipses and hyperbolas possess two foci, there are confocal ellipses, confocal hyperbolas and confocal mixtures of ellipses and hyperbolas. In the mixture of confocal ellipses and hyperbolas, any ellipse intersects any hyperbola orthogonally (at right angles). Parabolas possess only one focus, so, by convention, confocal parabolas have the same focus ''and'' the same axis of symmetry. Consequently, any point not on the axis of symmetry lies on two confocal parabolas which intersect orthogonally (see below). The formal extension of the concept of confocal conics to surfaces leads to confocal quadrics. Confocal ellipses An ellipse which is not a circle is uniquely determined by its foci F_1,\; F_2 and a point not on the major axis (see the definition of an ellipse as a locus of points). The pencil of confocal ellipses with the foci F_1=(c,0),\; F_2=(-c,0) can be described by the equation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Channel Surface
In geometry and topology, a channel or canal surface is a surface formed as the envelope of a family of spheres whose centers lie on a space curve, its '' directrix''. If the radii of the generating spheres are constant, the canal surface is called a pipe surface. Simple examples are: * right circular cylinder (pipe surface, directrix is a line, the axis of the cylinder) * torus (pipe surface, directrix is a circle), * right circular cone (canal surface, directrix is a line (the axis), radii of the spheres not constant), * surface of revolution (canal surface, directrix is a line), Canal surfaces play an essential role in descriptive geometry, because in case of an orthographic projection its contour curve can be drawn as the envelope of circles. *In technical area canal surfaces can be used for ''blending surfaces'' smoothly. Envelope of a pencil of implicit surfaces Given the pencil of implicit surfaces :\Phi_c: f(,c)=0 , c\in _1,c_2/math>, two neighboring surfaces \Ph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Focal Conics
In geometry, focal conics are a pair of curves consisting of either *an ellipse and a hyperbola, where the hyperbola is contained in a plane, which is orthogonal to the plane containing the ellipse. The vertices of the hyperbola are the foci of the ellipse and its foci are the vertices of the ellipse (see diagram). or *two parabolas, which are contained in two orthogonal planes and the vertex of one parabola is the focus of the other and vice versa. Focal conics play an essential role answering the question: "Which right circular cones contain a given ellipse or hyperbola or parabola (see below)". Focal conics are used as directrices for generating Dupin cyclides as canal surfaces in two ways. Focal conics can be seen as degenerate focal surfaces: Dupin cyclides are the only surfaces, where focal surfaces collapse to a pair of curves, namely focal conics. In Physical chemistry focal conics are used for describing geometrical properties of liquid crystals. One should not mix ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dupin Cyclide
In mathematics, a Dupin cyclide or cyclide of Dupin is any geometric inversion of a standard torus, cylinder or double cone. In particular, these latter are themselves examples of Dupin cyclides. They were discovered by (and named after) Charles Dupin in his 1803 dissertation under Gaspard Monge. The key property of a Dupin cyclide is that it is a channel surface (envelope of a one-parameter family of spheres) in two different ways. This property means that Dupin cyclides are natural objects in Lie sphere geometry. Dupin cyclides are often simply known as ''cyclides'', but the latter term is also used to refer to a more general class of quartic surfaces which are important in the theory of separation of variables for the Laplace equation in three dimensions. Dupin cyclides were investigated not only by Dupin, but also by A. Cayley, J.C. Maxwell and Mabel M. Young. Dupin cyclides are used in computer-aided design because cyclide patches have rational representations and are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torus
In geometry, a torus (plural tori, colloquially donut or doughnut) is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three-dimensional space about an axis that is coplanar with the circle. If the axis of revolution does not touch the circle, the surface has a ring shape and is called a torus of revolution. If the axis of revolution is tangent to the circle, the surface is a horn torus. If the axis of revolution passes twice through the circle, the surface is a spindle torus. If the axis of revolution passes through the center of the circle, the surface is a degenerate torus, a double-covered sphere. If the revolved curve is not a circle, the surface is called a ''toroid'', as in a square toroid. Real-world objects that approximate a torus of revolution include swim rings, inner tubes and ringette rings. Eyeglass lenses that combine spherical and cylindrical correction are toric lenses. A torus should not be confused with a '' solid torus'', which is formed by r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surface Of Revolution
A surface of revolution is a surface in Euclidean space created by rotating a curve (the generatrix) around an axis of rotation. Examples of surfaces of revolution generated by a straight line are cylindrical and conical surfaces depending on whether or not the line is parallel to the axis. A circle that is rotated around any diameter generates a sphere of which it is then a great circle, and if the circle is rotated around an axis that does not intersect the interior of a circle, then it generates a torus which does not intersect itself (a ring torus). Properties The sections of the surface of revolution made by planes through the axis are called ''meridional sections''. Any meridional section can be considered to be the generatrix in the plane determined by it and the axis. The sections of the surface of revolution made by planes that are perpendicular to the axis are circles. Some special cases of hyperboloids (of either one or two sheets) and elliptic paraboloids are su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaussian Curvature
In differential geometry, the Gaussian curvature or Gauss curvature of a surface at a point is the product of the principal curvatures, and , at the given point: K = \kappa_1 \kappa_2. The Gaussian radius of curvature is the reciprocal of . For example, a sphere of radius has Gaussian curvature everywhere, and a flat plane and a cylinder have Gaussian curvature zero everywhere. The Gaussian curvature can also be negative, as in the case of a hyperboloid or the inside of a torus. Gaussian curvature is an ''intrinsic'' measure of curvature, depending only on distances that are measured “within” or along the surface, not on the way it is isometrically embedding, embedded in Euclidean space. This is the content of the ''Theorema egregium''. Gaussian curvature is named after Carl Friedrich Gauss, who published the ''Theorema egregium'' in 1827. Informal definition At any point on a surface, we can find a Normal (geometry), normal vector that is at right angles to the sur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cuspidal Edge
In mathematics, a cusp, sometimes called spinode in old texts, is a point on a curve where a moving point must reverse direction. A typical example is given in the figure. A cusp is thus a type of singular point of a curve. For a plane curve defined by an analytic, parametric equation :\begin x &= f(t)\\ y &= g(t), \end a cusp is a point where both derivatives of and are zero, and the directional derivative, in the direction of the tangent, changes sign (the direction of the tangent is the direction of the slope \lim (g'(t)/f'(t))). Cusps are ''local singularities'' in the sense that they involve only one value of the parameter , in contrast to self-intersection points that involve more than one value. In some contexts, the condition on the directional derivative may be omitted, although, in this case, the singularity may look like a regular point. For a curve defined by an implicit equation :F(x,y) = 0, which is smooth, cusps are points where the terms of lowest degree o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ridge (differential Geometry)
In differential geometry, a smooth surface in three dimensions has a ridge point when a line of curvature has a local maximum or minimum of principal curvature. The set of ridge points form curves on the surface called ridges. The ridges of a given surface fall into two families, typically designated ''red'' and ''blue'', depending on which of the two principal curvatures has an extremum. At umbilical points the colour of a ridge will change from red to blue. There are two main cases: one has three ridge lines passing through the umbilic, and the other has one line passing through it. Ridge lines correspond to cuspidal edges on the focal surface. See also *Ridge detection In image processing, ridge detection is the attempt, via software, to locate ridges in an image, defined as curves whose points are local maxima of the function, akin to geographical ridges. For a function of ''N'' variables, its ridges are ... References * Differential geometry of surfaces Surface ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
