We will study the mathematical notion of bending of a curve.

Since a straight
line should certainly have zero curvature, a measure of the curvature of a plane
curve at a point p of the curve be its deviation from the tangent line at p. We will
assume all our curves to be smooth, i.e., their n'th derivative exists for all n.

1. Arc Length
Denition 1. The arc-length of a curve γ starting at the point γ(t0 ) is the function
R t
st0 (t) = t01 kγ̇(u)kdu. When t0 is clear from the context, we will omit it and simply
write s(t) for st0 (t).

Denition 2. A point γ(t) of a parametrized curve γ is called a regular point if

γ̇(t) 6= 0, otherwise γ(t) is a singular point of γ . A curve is regular if all of its points
are regular.

Lemma 1. If γ is a regular curve, its arc-length s starting at any point of γ , is a

smooth function of t.
Proof. [Proposition 1.3.5,[p]]. 
Proposition 1. A parametrized curve has a unit-speed reparametrization i it is
regular.
Proof. [Proposition 1.3.6,[p]]. 
Corollary 1. Let γ be a regular curve and let γ̃ be a unit-speed reparametrization
of γ : γ̃(u(t)) = γ(t) for all t where u is a C ∞ -dieomorphism. Then if s is the
arc-length of γ (Starting at any point), we have u = ±s + c, where c is a constant.
Conversely if u is given as ±s + c for some value of c, then γ̃ is a unit-speed
reparametrization of γ .
2. Curvature of Plane Curve
2
Suppose that γ is a unit speed curve in R . As the parameter t of γ changes to
t + ∆t, the curves moves away from its tangent line at γ(t) by a distance (γ(t +
∆t) − γ(t)) · η where η is a unit vector perpendicular to the tangent vector γ̇ of γ
at the point γ(t).
1 2 2
By Taylor's theorem γ(t + ∆t) = γ(t) + γ̇(t)∆t + γ̈(t)(∆t) + o((∆t) ). This
2
γ(t+∆t)−γ(t)−γ̇(t)∆t
can also be proved using L'Hospital theorem: lim∆t→0
(∆t)2 = γ̈(t)
2 .
2
Now dierentiating kγ̇(t)k = 1, we get < γ̈(t), γ̇(t) >= 0. Now γ̈(t) ⊥ γ̇(t) and
γ̇(t) ⊥ η implies γ̈(t) k η . Hence neglecting the remainder terms, the magnitude of
1 2
the deviation of γ from its tangent line is kγ̈(t)k(∆t) . This suggest the following
2
denition.

Denition 3. If γ is a unit-speed curve with parameter t, its curvature κ(t) at the

point γ(t) is dened to be kγ̈(t)k.
Remark 1. We make this denition for unit speed curve in Rn for all n ≥ 2. Also
note that κ(t) = 0 for all t ⇐⇒ γ is a part of a straight line.

Example 1. R2 centred at (x0 , y0 ) and

(Curvature of Circle) Consider the circle in
t t


radius R. This has a unit speed parametrization γ(t) = x0 +R cos , y0 +R sin .
 R  R
t t 1 t 1 t


We have γ̇(t) = − sin − R cos R , − R sin R . So kγ̈(t)k=
R , cos R and γ̈(t) =
1
2

1
R . This implies that small circles have large curvature and large circles have small
curvature. This Example motivates us to dene the following:

Denition 4. Given a regular curve γ with parameter t, its radius of curvature at

1
point γ(t) is dened by
κ(t) , where κ(t) is the curvature of γ at point γ(t).

So far we have only considered unit-speed curves. If γ is any regular curve, then
by Proposition 1, γ has a unit-speed reparametrization γ̃ , and we can dene the
curvature of γ to be that of γ̃. For this to make sense, we need to know that if
γ̂ is another unit-speed reparametrization of γ , the curvatures of γ̃ and γ̂ are the
same. To see this, note that γ̂ will be a reparametrization of γ̃ , so by Corollary 1
γ̃(t) = γ̂(u) where
 u = ±t + c and c is a constant. Then by Chain rule, dγ̃ dγ̂
dt = ± du ,
d2 γ̃ d dγ̂ 2
d γ̂ du d2 γ̂
so
dt2 = dt ± du = ± du 2 dt = du2 , which shows that γ̃ and γ̂ do indeed have

same curvature.
Although every regular curve γ has a unit-speed reparametrization, it may be
complicated or impossible to write it down explicitly, so we would like to have a
formula for the curvature of γ in terms of γ itself.

Proposition 2. Let γ be a regular curve in R3 . Then its curvature is κ = kγ̈×γ̇k

kγ̇k3
.
Proof. [Proposition 2.1.2,[p]]. 

Example 2. (Exercise 2.1.1(iv)) Consider the parametrized curve γ(t) = (cos3 t, sin3 t).
Then γ̇(t) = 3 sin t cos t(− cos t, sin t). So kγ̇(t)k = 3| sin t cos t|. kγ̇(t)k = 0 at
point t = nπ 2 , n ∈ Z. But γ is periodic with period 2π . Therefore, only val-
π 3π
ues we will consider for t are 0, , π and
2 2 , which corresponds to the points
(±1, 0) and (0, ±1) on the curve. By computation, we get 9 sin2 t cos2 t k . Hence
9 sin2 t cos2 t 2
κ(t) = 27| sin t cos t|3 = 3| sin 2t| .

Exercise 1. Exercise 2.1.1 and 2.1.2,[p].

Exercise 2. If a curve is dened in polar coordinates by the radius expressed as

a function
 of the polar angle, that is r is a function of θ, then its curvature is
r2 + 2r02 − r r00 
κ(θ) = 3 .
(r2 + r02 ) 2
Exercise 3. For a curve dened by an implicit equation F (x, y) = 0 with par-
tial derivatives denoted
 2 Fx , Fy , Fxx , Fxy , Fyy , then the curvature is given by
Fy Fxx − 2Fx Fy Fxy + Fx2 Fyy 
κ=
3 .
Fx2 + Fy2 2

3. Signed Curvature of Plane Curve

For plane curves, there are only two options for the normal η. So if we make a
choice for the normal η depending on the direction the curve is moving, then we
can simply dene γ̈ · η as the curvature of γ. And as follows, this denition becomes
much more geometrically appealing than the previous denition of curvature.
Suppose that γ is a unit-speed curve in R2 . Dene η∗ , the signed unit normal of
dγ π
γ, to be the unit vector obtained by rotating
ds anticlockwise by 2 .
 3

Then there is a scalar function κ∗ such that γ̈ = κ∗ η∗ . κ∗ is called the signed

curvature of γ. Note that κ = kγ̈k = kκ∗ η∗ k = |κ∗ |, so the curvature of γ is the
absolute value of its signed curvature. The following diagram shows how the sign of
the signed curvature is determined (in each case, the arrow on the curve indicates
the direction of increasing s).

Example 3. As the previous pictures indicates, the signed curvature does not get
preserved under reparametrization. For a concrete example, consider the parametriza-
tion γ(t) = (sin t, − cos t) of the unit circle in R2 , and a reparametrization γo (t) =
(− sin t, − cos t) of it. Then γ̇(t) = (cos t, sin t). So the signed normal η∗ at point
t is (− sin t, cos t). Hence γ̈(t) = (− sin t, cos t) = 1 · η∗ (t). So the signed curvature
κ∗ of γ is 1. But on the other hand similarly, we can show that for γo , the signed
curvature is −1.

Note that in the previous Example, γ and γo are oppositely oriented. We can
prove that if γ and γ1 are two unit speed curve, which have same orientation (i.e.
if γ1 (t) = γ ◦ h(t) and ḣ > 0 ), then their signed curvature is equal. Also, the arc-
length reparametrization of a regular curve has same orientation with it. Therefore
4

we can dene the signed curvature unambiguously with respect to its arc-length
reparametrization.

Proposition 3. Let γ be a regular curve in R2 . Then the signed curvature is given

by κ∗ = kγ̈·J
γ̇k
γ̇
3 .
Proof. Let γ̃ be the arc-length reparametrization of γ . Let φ be the inverse of the
arc-length function , so that γ̃(s) = γ(φ(s)). Let κ̃∗ be the signed curvature func-
tion, and η̃∗ be the signed unit normal for γ̃ . Then γ̃ ¨ = κ̃∗ η̃∗ = κ̃∗ J γ̃˙ . Talking dot
˙ ¨ ˙
product by J γ̃ in the both side we get γ̃ · J γ̃ = κ̃∗ . We have γ = γ̃ · φ
−1
, and dier-
entiating this twice, we get γ̇(t) = γ̃(φ ˙ −1 ˙ ¨ −1
(t))φ (t) and γ̈(t) = γ̃(φ (t)){φ−1
−1 ˙ (t)}2 +
˙γ̃(φ−1 (t))φ¨−1 (t). Hence γ̈(t)·J γ̇(t) = γ̃(φ
¨ −1 (t))J γ̃(φ
˙ −1 (t)){φ−1 ˙ (t)}3 = κ̃∗ (φ−1 (t))kγ̇(t)k3 ,
i.e. κ∗ (t) = κ̃∗ (φ
−1
(t)) = γ̈(t)·J γ̇(t)
kγ̇(t)k3
. 

References
[gas] Gray, Alfred; Abbena, Elsa; Salamon, Simon Modern dierential geometry of curves and
®
surfaces with Mathematica . Third edition. Studies in Advanced Mathematics. Chapman
& Hall/CRC, Boca Raton, FL, 2006. xxiv+984 pp.
[p] Pressley, Andrew Elementary dierential geometry. Springer Undergraduate Mathematics
Series. Springer-Verlag London, Ltd., London, 2001. x+332 pp.
[cj] Courant, Richard; John, Fritz Introduction to calculus and analysis. Vol. II. With the assis-
tance of Albert A. Blank and Alan Solomon. Reprint of the 1974 edition. Springer-Verlag,
New York, 1989. xxvi+954 pp.