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Illustration of tangential and normal components of a vector to a surface. In mathematics, given a vector at a point on a curve, that vector can be decomposed uniquely as a sum of two vectors, one tangent to the curve, called the tangential component of the vector, and another one perpendicular to the curve, called the normal component of the vector.
The tangent, normal, and binormal unit vectors, often called T, N, and B, or collectively the Frenet–Serret frame (TNB frame or TNB basis), together form an orthonormal basis that spans, and are defined as follows: T is the unit vector tangent to the curve, pointing in the direction of motion.
In calculus, the method of normals was a technique invented by Descartes for finding normal and tangent lines to curves. It represented one of the earliest methods for constructing tangents to curves. The method hinges on the observation that the radius of a circle is always normal to the circle itself. With this in mind Descartes would ...
Tangent to a curve. The red line is tangential to the curve at the point marked by a red dot. Tangent plane to a sphere. In geometry, the tangent line (or simply tangent) to a plane curve at a given point is, intuitively, the straight line that "just touches" the curve at that point.
In geometry, a normal is an object (e.g. a line, ray, or vector) that is perpendicular to a given object. For example, the normal line to a plane curve at a given point is the line perpendicular to the tangent line to the curve at the point. A normal vector of length one is called a unit normal vector.
If t = s is the natural parameter, then the tangent vector has unit length. The formula simplifies: = ′ (). The unit tangent vector determines the orientation of the curve, or the forward direction, corresponding to the increasing values of the parameter.
The line YR is normal to the curve and the envelope of such normals is its evolute. Therefore, YR is tangent to the evolute and the point Y is the foot of the perpendicular from P to this tangent, in other words Y is on the pedal of the evolute. It follows that the contrapedal of a curve is the pedal of its evolute.
A line is normal to γ at γ(t) if it passes through γ(t) and is perpendicular to the tangent vector to γ at γ(t). Let T denote the unit tangent vector to γ and let N denote the unit normal vector. Using a dot to denote the dot product, the generating family for the one-parameter family of normal lines is given by F : I × R 2 → R where