Parametric Curves

(Com S 477/577 Notes)

Yan-Bin Jia Oct 2, 2012

Introduction

A curve in R2 (or R3 ) is a dierentiable function : [a, b] R2 (or R3 ). The initial point is [a] and the nal point is [b]. The domain of the curve is the interval [a, b]. A portion of dened on an interval [c, d] [a, b] is called a curve segment.
Example 1. Straight Line linear. Explicitly, the curve The line is the simplest curve in the plane as its coordinate functions are where v = 0, (1)

(t) = p + tv = (x0 + tu, y0 + tv ),

is a straight line through the reference point p = (0) = (x0 , y0 ) in the direction v = (u, v ). Here, t is the signed distance from a point (t) on the line to p as scaled by v . As shown on the left, the vector from p to a point ( x, y ) on the line must be either in the direction of (u, v ) ( x, y) or in its opposite direction. Hence, the cross product of ( x0 , y0) the two vectors must be zero, that is,
( u, v)

(x x0 , y y0 ) (u, v ) = 0. Expansion of the above cross product yields an implicit equation of the line that relates the x and y coordinates of every incident point: vx uy vx0 + uy0 = 0. (2)

Example 2. Helix1 The curve t (a cos t, a sin t, 0) travels around a circle of radius a > 0 in the x-y plane. If we allow this curve to rise (or fall) at a constant rate, we obtain a helix = (a cos t, a sin t, bt), where a > 0 and b = 0.

Example 3. The curve : R R3 such that

1

(t) = (et , et , 2t)

The gure is from [1, p. 16].

shares with the helix in Example 2 the property of rising constantly. However, it lies over the hyperbola xy = 1 in the x-y plane instead of a circle.

A curve (t) = (x(t), y (t)) is said to be smooth at t = t0 if its kth derivative (k) (t) = x(k) (t), y (k) (t) exists for any integer k > 0. A piecewise smooth curve has a domain which is the union of a nite number of subintervals over each of which is smooth.
Example 4. A line (t) = p + tq is a smooth curve. Here (t) = q and (k) = 0 for k > 1. A polygon, on the other hand, is a piecewise smooth curve, where each edge determines a subdomain. Example 5. Cuspidal cubic The curve (t) = (t2 , t3 ) is smooth.2 We have (t) (t) (t) (k) (t) = (2t, 3t2 ), = (2, 6t), = (0, 6), = 0, k 4.

Consider a plane curve : [a, b] R2 . It is called a closed parametric curve if (a) = (b). A point of self-crossing is a point (t1 ) for which there exist nitely many distinct values t1 , . . . , tn [a, b], n 2, which satisfy (t1 ) = (t2 ) = = (tn ), and in the case n = 2, [t1 , t2 ] = [a, b].
Example 6. A circle is closed. The other three curves all have self-crossings.

This gure is from [2, p. 60].

Velocity, Speed, and Arc Length

Let (t) be a curve. The velocity vector of at t is (t). The speed at t is the length (t) . The meaning is clear if we see (t) as the location of a moving point at time t. The parametrization (t) is unit-speed if (t) = 1 for all values of t. A point where (t) = 0 is called a cusp on the curve. The curve (t) is regular if all velocity vectors are dierent from zero, that is, (t) = 0 for all t.
Example 7. The origin on the cuspidal cubic in Example 5 is a cusp. Example 8. Consider the curve () = (a cos , a sin ). It has velocity () = a(cos sin , sin + cos ), and speed () = |a| (cos sin )2 + (sin + cos )2 = |a| 1 + 2 = 0. Therefore the parametrization is regular.

The velocity and speed depend on the parametrization. Generally, they vary with the parametrization of the same geometric curve. Non-regularity at a point may be just a property of the parametrization, and need not correspond to any special feature of the geometric curve. For a dierent parametrization the curve may have a non-zero velocity at the corresponding point. To formulate the length of , we note that the portion over [t, t + t] is nearly a straight line when t is very small. (t ) So the length over [t, t + t] can be approximated by (t + t) (t) , which again is approximated by (t) t. We divide up into segments, each of which corresponds to a small increment t. As t tends to zero, we will obtain the exact length. The arc length of from t = a to t = b is thus dened as
b
(t +t )

(t) dt.
a

Example 9. Logarithmic spiral3 The curve (t) = (et cos t, et sin t), has a spiral motion. We obtain that (t) = (t)
3

et (cos t sin t), et (sin t + cos t) , t 2e .

The gure originally appears in [3, p. 8].

Hence the arc length of starting at (0) = (1, 0), for instance, is
t

s=
0

u 2e du = 2(et 1).

Reparametrization

Let I and J be intervals. Let : I R3 be a curve and let h be a dierentiable function. Then the composite function = h is a curve called the reparametrization of by h.
h J s t I ( s ) = (h (s ))

Example 10.

Suppose (t) = ( t, t t, 1 t) on (0, 4). If h(s) = s2 on (0, 2), then (s) = (h(s)) = (s2 ) = (s, s3 , 1 s2 ).

The curve has been reparametrized by h to yield the curve .

At each time s in the interval J , the curve is at the point (s) = (h(s)) reached by the curve at time h(s) in the interval. Thus does follow the route of , but it reaches a given point on the route at a dierent time than does. Sometimes one is interested only in the route followed by a curve and not in the particular speed at which it traverses its route. One way to ignore the speed of a curve is to reparametrize to a curve which has unit speed = 1. Theorem 1 If is a regular curve, then there exists a reparametrization that has unit speed.

Proof

Consider the arc length function

t

s(t) =
c

(u) du,

where c is a number in the domain of . It then follows that s (t) = (t) ; namely, the derivative of s is the speed function (t) . Since is regular, = 0 everywhere; hence ds dt > 0 always holds. By a standard theorem of calculus, the function s has an inverse function t(s), and 1 1 dt = ds = . (t) ds dt Now we let (s) = (t(s)) be the reparametrization of . Then (s) = (t(s)) Hence, the speed of is (s) = (t(s)) dt . ds

1 = 1. (t(s))

The unit-speed curve is said to have arc-length parameterization, since the arc length of from s = a to s = b, a < b, is just b a.
Example 11. Let us consider the helix = (a cos t, a sin t, bt) in Example 2 again. It has velocity (t) = (a sin t, a cos t, b). Hence (t) Thus has constant speed: c = = The arc length from t = 0 is then s(t) =
0 t 2

= (t) (t) = a2 sin2 t + a2 cos2 t + b2 = a2 + b2 . a2 + b 2 .

c du = ct.

Hence, t(s) = s c . Substituting this into the formula for , we get the unit-speed reparametrization (s) = s = c s s bs a cos , a sin , c c c .

Although every regular curve has a unit-speed reparametrization, this may be very complicated, or even impossible to write down explicitly, as the following examples show.
Example 12. The logarithmic spiral (t) = (et cos t, et sin t),

has speed

So it is regular. The arc length starting at (1, 0) was found in Example 9 to be s = 2(et 1). Hence, s + 1), so a unit-speed reparametrization of is given by the rather unwieldy formula t = ln( 2 (s) = s + 1 cos ln 2 s +1 2 , s + 1 sin ln 2 s +1 2 .

t 2e > 0.

Example 13. Twisted cubic4 This is the space curve given by (t) = (t, t2 , t3 ), < t < .

We have (t) = (t) = (1, 2t, 3t2 ), 1 + 4 t2 + 9 t4 .

Since the speed (t) is not zero everywhere, is regular. And the arc-length starting at (0) = 0 is
t

s=
0

1 + 4u2 + 9u4 du.

The above integral has a horrendous closed form not in terms of familiar functions.

Tangent and Normal

The standard method of studying the geometry of a curve at a point is to attach orthonormal vectors to the point and see how the directions of these vectors change as the point moves on the curve for an innitesimal distance. We choose tangent and normal vectors at a regular point. Let (t) = (x(t), y (t)) be a curve. At a regunormal line lar point (t) we have a (non-zero) tangent vectangent line tor (t) = (x (t), y (t)). So the tangent vector t increasing represents the velocity of the curve at the point. The normal vector at (t) is given by rotating ( x( t) ,y ( t) ) the tangent vector counterclockwise through an (y ( t) ,x ( t) ) angle 2 . It is given by (y (t), x (t)). Note that (x (t), y (t)) (y (t), x (t)) = (x (t))2 + (y (t))2 > 0. If (t) is a unit-speed curve, then both the tangent vector and the normal vector are unit vectors. By convention they are denoted as T and N , respectively, with the cross product T N = 1. For a parametric curve we have a tangent line and a normal line at each regular point (t). The tangent line to the curve at (t) passes through (t) and is parallel to (t) = 0. So it has the parametric equation x(s), y (s) = (t) + s (t),
4

s (, ),

The gure originally appears in [3, p. 14].

or equivalently, the algebraic equation (x, y ) (t) y (t), x (t) = 0. The normal line at (t) passes through the point and is parallel to (y (t), x (t)). So its equations are of the form x(s), y (s) = (t) + s y (t), x (t) , s (, ), or equivalently, x(s), y (s) (t) (t) = 0.
Example 14. Crunodal cubic5 is described as (t) = t2 1, t(t2 1) . Find its tangent and normal lines of the curve at the points t = 1, 0. We obtain that (t) = (1) = (1) =

(2t, 3t2 1), (2, 2), (0, 1), (0, 0). (2, 2),

(0) = (1) =

Here = (0, 0) is referred to as a double point since it is attained at both t = 1 and t = 1. The tangent lines at this double point are respectively (x, y ) = s(1, 1), and (x, y ) = s(1, 1), (x, y ) = s(1, 1), and (x, y ) = s(1, 1),

or equivalently,

y = x, or equivalently, y = x. y = x, y = x.

The normal lines at the double point are respectively or equivalently, or equivalently,

At t = 0, we have (0) = (0, 1), and the tangent line at (0) is (x, y ) = (1, 0) + s(0, 1), The normal line at (0) is (x, y ) = (1, 0) + s(1, 0),
5

or equivalently,

x = 1.

or equivalently,

y = 0.

This gure is taken from [2, p. 60].

References
[1] B. ONeill. Elementary Dierential Geometry. Academic Press, Inc., 1966. [2] J. W. Rutter. Geometry of Curves. Chapman & Hall/CRC, 2000. [3] A. Pressley. Elementary Dierential Geometry. Springer-Verlag London, 2001.