curvature

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The shape of something curved.

   Constructional costs are kept to a minimum by the admissibility of heavy grades and sharp curvature.

2. 2
   noun

   The extent to which a subspace is curved within a metric space.

   A turtle drawing an ellipse would have to turn more per distance traveled to get around its “pointy” sides than to get around its flatter top and bottom. This notion of how “pointy something is,” expressed as the ratio of angle turned to distance traveled, is the intrinsic quantity that mathematicians call curvature.

3. 3
   noun

   the property possessed by the curving of a line or surface

4. 4
   noun

   the rate of change (at a point) of the angle between a curve and a tangent to the curve

From Latin curvare, from Latin curvatura. See also curve. Displaced native Old English ġebīeġednes.

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