In mathematics, osculate, meaning to touch (from the Latin ''osculum'' meaning
kiss
A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...
), may refer to:
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osculant, an invariant of hypersurfaces
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osculating circle
In differential geometry of curves, the osculating circle of a sufficiently smooth plane curve at a given point ''p'' on the curve has been traditionally defined as the circle passing through ''p'' and a pair of additional points on the curve i ...
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osculating curve
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osculating plane {{Unreferenced, date=May 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot)
In mathematics, particularly in differential geometry, an osculating plane is a plane in a Euclidean space or affine space which meets a submanifold at a point in such a way as to have a second ...
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osculating orbit
In astronomy, and in particular in astrodynamics, the osculating orbit of an object in space at a given moment in time is the gravitational Kepler orbit (i.e. an elliptic or other conic one) that it would have around its central body if pertu ...
The obsolete
Quinarian system
The quinarian system was a method of zoological classification which was popular in the mid 19th century, especially among British naturalists. It was largely developed by the entomologist William Sharp Macleay in 1819. The system was further pro ...
of biological classification attempted to group creatures into circles which could touch or overlap with adjacent circles, a phenomenon called 'osculation'.
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