48

Lecture 8

Curvature

Intuitively, curvature, say of a road bend, is reflected by how much you need to turn
the steering wheel when driving along that bend. If you keep the steering wheel
fixed the path along which you drive is a circle. A good measure for the curvature
of a circle is the reciprocal of its radius.
For another approach to curvature we could look at the rate of change of the
direction of the tangent. Bigger curvature would relate to a more rapid change of
the direction. The derivative of the unit tangent vector T (t)
dT
dt
would depend on the parametrisation of the curve (the travel speed along the curve).
Indeed, if was a another parameter, so that t = t( ) depends on then
dT dt
dT
=
.
d
dt d
To avoid such dependence on the choice of parameter we use the arc length
parameter s. Now, as s varies, only the direction of T~ (s) changes (its length is
~
always 1). The derivative of T~ (s), namely ddsT , then measures the rate of change of
direction of the curve ~r = ~r(s). The curvature of the curve is defined by

dT~

= .
ds
Example 1 Show that the two concepts of curvature introduced above are the same
for the circle of radius R: ~r = R(cos t~i + sin t ~j).
y

First change to arc length parameter.

We choose the point t = 0 as a
reference point and obtain

s =
=
=

||~r (u)||du

Z0 t p
Z0 t
0

(R sin u)2 + (R cos u)2 du

Rdu = Rt

49
Therefore ~r(s) = R(cos Rs ~i + sin Rs ~j) and
s
s
T~ (s) = ~r (s) = sin ~i + cos ~j
R
R
s
s
1
1
T~ (s) = cos ~i sin ~j
R
R
R
rR
s
1
s
1
1
(s) = ||T~ (s)|| =
( cos )2 + ( sin )2 = .
R
R
R
R
R
The curvature is always

1
,
R

as expected.

Changing to arc length parameter according to the formula

s=

||~r (u)||du

could be difficult to use, as the integration could be hard to do.

For example, if ~r(t) = 2 cos t~i + 3 sin t~j, then

||~r (t)|| =

(2 sin t)2

(3 cos t)2

4 sin2 t + 9 cos2 t

and it is difficult to find

Z tp

4 sin2 u + 9 cos2 u du.

The following theorem gives us some practical formula to calculate the curvature
without changing to arc length parameter.
Theorem 1. If ~r(t) is a smooth vector-valued function in 2-space or 3-space, and
if T~ (t), ~r (t) exist, then

(a) = (t) =

||T~ (t)||
,
||~r (t)||

(b) = (t) =

||~r (t) ~r (t)||

.
||~r (t)||3

Note. In (b), if ~r(t) is in 2-space, i.e. ~r(t) = x(t)~i + y(t)~j, then we write it as
~r(t) = x(t)~i + yt~j + 0~k in order to be able to perform the cross product (remember
cross product is defined only for 3-space vectors).
Proof.

50
(a) Recall that from
s(t) =

to

||~r (u)||du,

one always has s (t) = ||~r (t)||. Now by the chain rule
dT~ ds
dT~
dT~
=

=
||~r (t)||.
T~ (t) =
dt
ds dt
ds
Hence,

dT~

||T~ (t)|| = ||~r (t)||,
ds

and dividing by ||~r (t)||, we obtain

dT~ ||T~ (t)||

.
= =
ds ||~r (t)||

This proves (a)

(b) Since ||T~ (t)|| 1, by property (4) in Theorem 1, Lecture 5, T~ (t)T~ (t), i.e.
the angle between these two vectors is = 2 . It follows, as ||T~ (t)|| = 1 and
sin = sin 2 = 1,
||T~ (t) T~ (t)|| = ||T~ (t)|| ||T~ (t)|| sin = ||T~ (t)||.
By definition,
T~ (t) =
Therefore
~

T (t) =
T~ (t) T~ (t) =
=
=


1
~r (t).
||~r (t)||




1
1

~r (t)
~r (t) +

||~r (t)||
||~r (t)||




1
1

T~ (t) ~r (t).
T~ (t) ~r (t) +
||~r (t)||
||~r (t)||
2
 



1
1
1

~r (t) ~r (t).
~r (t) ~r (t) +
||~r (t)||
||~r (t)||
||~r (t)||

2
1
~r (t) ~r (t).
||~r (t)||


Note that we have used ~r (t) ~r (t) = ~0.

Now we use the formula proved in part (a) together with what we have been
proved above, namely
||T~ (t)|| = ||T~ (t) T~ (t)||

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and

~r (t) ~r (t)
T~ (t) T~ (t) =
.
||~r (t)||2

and obtain

=
=

||T~ (t) T~ (t)||

||T~ (t)||
=
||~r (t)||
||~r (t)||



 ~r (t)~r (t) 
 ||~r (t)||2 

||~r (t)||
||~r (t) ~r (t)||
. 2
=
||~r (t)||3

We show now that the two approaches to curvature are equivalent for all plain
curves. Without loss of generality we assume that a curve is given as a graph
y = f (x) and the point at which we want to compute the curvature is the origin.
We choose the coordinate system in such a way that the x-axis is tangent to the
curve at the origin. Thus, f (0) = 0 and f (0) = 0 and therefore the curve has the
equation
1
y = f (x) = f (0)x2 + o(x2 ).
2
A (concave up) circle passing through the origin and tangent to the x axis has the
equation
x2 + (y R)2 = R2
or

x2
x2
2
y =R
) + o(x ) =
+ o(x2 ).
= R R(1 =
2
2R
2R
Hence the radius of the best fitting circle is R = f 1(0) 8 .
R2

x2

On the other hand,

~r = hx, f (x), 0i

~r = h1, f (x), 0i

~r

= h0, f (x), 0i

and therefore
~r ~r

= h0, 0, f (x)i
p
||~r ~r (0)|| = (f (0))2 = |f (0)|
p
||~r (0)|| = 1 + (f (x))2 = 1
1
(0) = |f (x)| =
R
8

If f (0) < 0 the best fitting circle would be concave down with equation x2 + (y + R)2 = R2 .
Then a similar computation shows that R = f 1(0) = |f 1(0)| .

52
which shows that the curvature is the reciprocal of the radius of the best fitting
circle.
Example 2. Find (t) for ~r = (2 cos t)~i + (3 sin t)~j.
Solution:
~r(t) = (2 cos t)~i + (3 sin t)~j + 0~k
~r (t) = (2 sin t)~i + (3 cos t)~j + 0~k
~r (t) = (2 cos t)~i + (3 sin t)~j + 0~k




~
~
~
i
j
k




~r (t) ~r (t) =  2 sin t 3 cos t 0  = 6(sin2 t + cos2 t)~k = 6~k


 2 cos t 3 sin t 0 
||~r (t) ~r (t)|| = ||6~k|| = 6
p
p
||~r (t)|| = (2 sin t)2 + (3 cos t)2 = 4 sin2 t + 9 cos2 t
6
||~r (t) ~r (t)||
=
(t) =
2
3 .

3
2
||~r (t)||
(4 sin t + 9 cos2 t) 2

Example 3. Find (t) for x = a cos t, y = a sin t, z = ct (a > 0, c > 0).

Solution:
~r(t) = a cos t~i + a sin t~j + ct~k
~r(t) = a sin t~i + a cos t~j + c~k

~r (t) = a cos t~i + (a sin t)~j + 0~k




~k 
~i
~j



~r (t) ~r (t) =  a sin t a cos t c 


 a cos t a sin t 0 

= (ac sin t)~i (ac cos t)~j + a2~k

p
(ac sin t)2 + (ac cos t)2 + (a2 )2
||~r (t) ~r (t)|| =

=
a2 c2 + a4 = a a2 + c2
p

(a sin t)2 + (a cos t)2 + c2 = a2 + c2

||~r (t)|| =

a
a
a a2 + c2
||~r(t) ~r (t)||
=
= 2
=
(t) =

3
2
2
3
2
2
2
||~r (t)||
a + c2
( a +c )
( a +c )
2