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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.
Parabola (magenta) and line (lower light blue) including a chord (blue). The area enclosed between them is in pink. The chord itself ends at the points where the line intersects the parabola. The area enclosed between a parabola and a chord (see diagram) is two-thirds of the area of a parallelogram that surrounds it.
A general straight-line thread connects the two points (0, k−t) and (t, 0), where k is an arbitrary scaling constant, and the family of lines is generated by varying the parameter t. From simple geometry, the equation of this straight line is y = −(k − t)x/t + k − t. Rearranging and casting in the form F(x,y,t) = 0 gives:
The normal form (also called the Hesse normal form, [10] after the German mathematician Ludwig Otto Hesse), is based on the normal segment for a given line, which is defined to be the line segment drawn from the origin perpendicular to the line. This segment joins the origin with the closest point on the line to the origin.
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 construct a circle that was tangent to a given curve. He could then use the radius at the point of intersection to find the slope of a normal line, and from this one can easily find the slope of a tangent line.
In this case, one gets a parallel curve on the opposite side of the curve (see diagram on the parallel curves of a circle). One can easily check that a parallel curve of a line is a parallel line in the common sense, and the parallel curve of a circle is a concentric circle.
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.
A convex curve (black) forms a connected subset of the boundary of a convex set (blue), and has a supporting line (red) through each of its points. A parabola, a convex curve that is the graph of the convex function () = In geometry, a convex curve is a plane curve that has a supporting line through each of its points.