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Radius of curvature and center of curvature. In differential geometry, the radius of curvature, R, is the reciprocal of the curvature. For a curve, it equals the radius of the circular arc which best approximates the curve at that point. For surfaces, the radius of curvature is the radius of a circle that best fits a normal section or ...
This equation reduces to that of the volume of a sphere when all three elliptic radii are equal, and to that of an oblate or prolate spheroid when two of them are equal. The volume of an ellipsoid is 2 / 3 the volume of a circumscribed elliptic cylinder, and π / 6 the volume of the circumscribed box.
When calculating the length of a short north-south line at the equator, the circle that best approximates that line has a radius of (which equals the meridian's semi-latus rectum), or 6335.439 km, while the spheroid at the poles is best approximated by a sphere of radius , or 6399.594 km, a 1% difference. So long as a spherical Earth is assumed ...
On an ellipsoid of revolution, for short meridian arcs, their length can be approximated using the Earth's meridional radius of curvature and the circular arc formulation. For longer arcs, the length follows from the subtraction of two meridian distances , the distance from the equator to a point at a latitude φ .
Curvature of general surfaces was first studied by Euler. In 1760 [4] he proved a formula for the curvature of a plane section of a surface and in 1771 [5] he considered surfaces represented in a parametric form. Monge laid down the foundations of their theory in his classical memoir L'application de l'analyse à la géometrie which appeared in ...
When the sagitta is small in comparison to the radius, it may be approximated by the formula [2] s ≈ l 2 8 r . {\displaystyle s\approx {\frac {l^{2}}{8r}}.} Alternatively, if the sagitta is small and the sagitta, radius, and chord length are known, they may be used to estimate the arc length by the formula
The flattening value varies slightly from one reference ellipsoid to another, reflecting local conditions and whether the reference ellipsoid is intended to model the entire Earth or only some portion of it. A sphere has a single radius of curvature, which is simply the radius of the sphere. More complex surfaces have radii of curvature that ...
This curve will in general have different curvatures for different normal planes at p. The principal curvatures at p, denoted k 1 and k 2, are the maximum and minimum values of this curvature. Here the curvature of a curve is by definition the reciprocal of the radius of the osculating circle. The curvature is taken to be positive if the curve ...