Curvature

Com S 477/577
Sep 14, 2010
We want to nd a measure of how curved a curve is. Since this curvature should depend
only on the shape of the curve. It should not be changed when the curve is reparametrized.
Further, the measure of curvature should agree with our intuition in simple special cases. Straight
lines themselves have zero curvature. Large circles should have smaller curvature than small circles
which bend more sharply.
The (signed) curvature of a curve parametrized by its arc length is the rate of change of direction
of the tangent vector. The absolute value of the curvature is a measure of how sharply the curve
bends. Curves which bend slowly, which are almost straight lines, will have small absolute curvature.
Curves which swing to the left have positive curvature and curves which swing to the right have
negative curvature. The curvature of the direction of a road will aect the maximum speed at
which vehicles can travel without skidding, and the curvature in the trajectory of an airplane will
aect whether the pilot will suer blackout as a result of the g-forces involved.
In this lecture we will primarily look at the curvature of plane curves. The results will be
extended to space curves in the next lecture.
1 Curvature
To introduce the denition of curvature, in this section we consider that (s) is a unit-speed curve,
where s is the arc length. The tangential angle is measured counterclockwise from the x-axis to
the unit tangent T =

(s), as shown below.

( )
x
( ) s
s
The curvature of is the rate of change of direction at that point of the tangent line with
respect to arc length, that is,
=
d
ds
. (1)
The absolute curvature of the curve at the point is the absolute value ||.
1
Since has unit speed, T T = 1. Dierentiating this equation yields
T

T = 0.
The change of T(s) is orthogonal to the tangential direction, so it must be along the normal
direction. The curvature is also dened to measure the turning of T(s) along the direction of the
unit normal N(s) where T(s) N(s) = 1. That is,
T

=
dT
ds
= N. (2)
We can easily derive one of the curvature denitions (1) and (2) from the other. For instance,
if we start with (2), then
= T

N
=
dT
ds
N
= lim
s0
T(s + s) T(s)
s
N
= lim
s0
T
s
= lim
s0

s
=
d
ds
.
T s+ s ( )
T s ( )
N s ( )
T s ( )
T s+ s ( )

Example 1. Let us compute the curvature of the unit-speed circle

(s) = r
_
cos
s
r
, sin
s
r
_
.
We obtain that
T =

(s) =
_
sin
s
r
, cos
s
r
_
,
N =
_
cos
s
r
, sin
s
r
_
,
T

(s) =
1
r
_
cos
s
r
, sin
s
r
_
=
1
r
N.
Thus
(s) =
1
r
. cf. (2)
2
The curvature of a circle equals the inverse of its radius everywhere.
The next result shows that a unit-speed plane curve is essentially determined once we know its
curvature at each point of the curve. The meaning of essentially here is up to a rigid motion
1
of
R
2
.
Theorem 1 Let : (a, b) R be an integrable function. Then there exists a unit-speed curve
: (a, b) R
2
whose curvature is .
Proof Fix s
0
(a, b) and dene, for any s (a, b),
(s) =
_
s
s
0
(u) du, cf. (1),
(s) =
__
s
s
0
cos (t) dt,
_
s
s
0
sin(t) dt
_
.
Then, the tangent vector of is

(s) =
_
cos (s), sin (s)
_
,
which is a unit vector making an angle (s) with the x-axis. Thus is unit speed, and has curvature
d
ds
=
d
ds
_
s
s
0
(u) du = (s).
The above theorem shows that we can nd a plane curve with any given smooth function as
its signed curvature. But simple curvature can lead to complicated curves, as shown in the next
example.
Example 2. Let the signed curvature be (s) = s. Following the proof of Theorem 1, and taking s
0
= 0,
we get
(s) =
_
s
0
u du =
s
2
2
,
(s) =
__
s
0
cos
s
2
2
ds,
_
s
0
sin
s
2
2
ds
_
.
These integrals can only be evaluated numerically.
2
The curve is drawn in the gure below.
3
1
A rigid motion consists of a rotation and a translation.
2
They arise in the theory of diraction of light, where they are called Fresnels integrals, and the curve is called
Cornus Spiral, although it was rst considered by Euler.
3
Taken from [3, p. 33].
3
When the curvature (s) > 0, the center of curvature lies along the direction of N(s) at distance
1

from the point (s). When (s) < 0, the center of curvature lies along the direction of N(s)
at distance
1

from (s). In either case, the center of curvature is located at

(s) +
1
(s)
N(s).
The osculating circle, when = 0, is the circle at the center of curvature with radius
1
||
, which
is called the radius of curvature. The osculating circle approximates the curve locally up to the
second order.
s ( )
circle
1/
center of
curvature
curvature
radius of
osculating
The total curvature over a closed interval [a, b] measures the rotation of the unit tangent T(s)
as s changes from a to b:
(a, b) =
_
b
a
ds
=
_
b
a
d
ds
ds
=
_
b
a
d
= (b) (a).
4
If the total curvature over [a, b] is within [0, 2], it has a closed form:
(a, b) =
_
_
_
arccos
_
T(a) T(b)
_
, if T(a) T(b) 0;
2 arccos
_
T(a) T(b)
_
, otherwise.
When the tangent makes several full revolutions
4
as s increases from a to b, the total curvature
cannot be determined just from T(a) and T(b).
T a ( )
T a ( )
T b ( )
T b ( )
( )
( )
a
b

total curvature
A point s on the curve is simple inection, or inection, if the curvature (s) = 0 but

(s) = 0. Intuitively, a simple inection is where the curve swing from the left of the tangent at
the point to its right; or in the case of simple closed curve, it is where the closed curve changes
from convex to concave or from concave to convex. In the gure below, the curve on the left has
one simple inection while the curve on the right has six simple inections.
inflection
simple
< 0
> 0
< 0
> 0
< 0
> 0
> 0
< 0
In general, a point s with (s) =

(s) = =
(j1)
(s) = 0 and
(j)
(s) = 0 is an inection
point of order j. A second order inection point, also referred to as a point of simple undulation,
will not alter the convexity or concavity of its neighborhood on a simple closed curve.
A simple vertex, or a vertex, of a curve satises

= 0 but

= 0. Intuitively, a simplex vertex

is where the curvature attains a local minimum or maximum. For example, an ellipse has four
vertices, on its major and minor axes.
4
For example, the curve is the Cornus Spiral.
5
simple vertex
2 Curvature of Arbitrary-Speed Curves
Let (t) be a regular curve but not necessarily unit-speed. We obtain the unit tangent as T =

and the unit normal N as the counterclockwise rotation of T by

2
. Still denote by (t)
the curvature function. Let (s) be the unit-speed reparametrization of , where s is an arc-length
function for . Let

T = d /ds be the unit tangent and (s) the curvature function under this
unit-speed parametrization. The curvature at a point is independent of any parametrization so
(t) = (s(t)). Also by denition T(t) =

T(s). Dierentiate this equation and apply the chain
rule:
T

(t) =

T

(s)
ds
dt
. (3)
Since (s) is unit-speed, we know that

(s) = (s)

N(s).
Substituting the function s in this equation yields

(s) =
_
s(t)
_

N
_
s(t)
_
= (t)N(t) (4)
by the denition of and N in the arbitrary-speed case. We know that ds/dt =

(t) from the

denition of arc length
s =
_
t
t
0

(u) du.
Denote by v =

(t) the speed function of . Equations (3) and (4) combine to yield
T

= vN. (5)
Now let (t) = (x(t), y(t)). Then
T = (x

, y

)/

(t) = (x

, y

)
_
_
x
2
+ y
2
,
N = (y

, x

)
_
_
x
2
+ y
2
.
Substituting these terms into (5) yields a formula for evaluating the curvature:
=
T

N
v
6
=
_
(x

, y

)
_
x
2
+ y
2
+
d
dt
_
1
_
x
2
+ y
2
_
(x

, y

)
_

(y

, x

)
_
x
2
+ y
2
_
_
x
2
+ y
2
=
x

(x
2
+ y
2
)
3
2
.
We can write the formula simply as
=

3
.
Example 3. Find the curvature of the curve (t) = (t
3
t, t
2
). so we have

(t) = (3t
2
1, 2t),

(t) = (6t, 2).

Therefore
=
x

(x
2
+ y
2
)
3
2
=
(3t
2
1) 2 2t 6t
_
(3t
2
1)
2
+ (2t)
2
_3
2
=
6t
2
+ 2
(9t
4
2t
2
+ 1)
3
2
.
Finally, we derive the formula for the total curvature over [a, b]. Let (s) be the unit-speed
parametrization of , where s is the arc length function. Let a and

b be the parameter values such
that
( a) = (a) and (

b) = (b).
Then the total curvature of over [ a,

b] is given by
_

b
a
(s) ds.
Since ds/dt =

(t), we substitute t for s in the above equation and obtain the total curvature
formula
(a, b) =
_
b
a
(t)

(t) dt.
References
[1] B. ONeill. Elementary Dierential Geometry. Academic Press, Inc., 1966.
[2] J. W. Rutter. Geometry of Curves. Chapman & Hall/CRC, 2000.
[3] A. Pressley. Elementary Dierential Geometry. Springer-Verlag London, 2001.
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