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kidsmoker
Jul15-09, 07:22 AM
1. The problem statement, all variables and given/known data

Let \underline{r} be a regular parameterisation of a space curve C \subset R^{3}. Prove that

\kappa=\frac{\left\|\underline{\dot{r}}\times\unde rline{\ddot{r}}\right\|}{\left\|\underline{\dot{r} }\right\|^{3}} .

3. The attempt at a solution

We have

t(u)=\frac{\frac{dr}{du}}{\left\|\frac{dr}{du}\rig ht\|}

so differentiating both sides wrt u we obtain

\frac{dt}{du}=\frac{\frac{d^{2}r}{du^{2}}}{\left\| \frac{dr}{du}\right\|}+\frac{dr}{du}\frac{d}{du}(\ frac{1}{\left\|\frac{dr}{du}\right\|}).

Since

\frac{dt}{du}=\kappa\underline{n}

this gets me the curavture in terms of the desired bits (with n too) but I can't seem to get it to the desired result :\

Thanks for your help!

n!kofeyn
Jul15-09, 09:45 AM
This link (http://books.google.com/books?id=UXPyquQaO6EC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA25) is from a great introductory book to differential geometry. I highly recommend it.