CURVATURE
Cur"va*ture (kr"v-tr; 135), n. Etym: [L. curvatura. See Curvate.]
1. The act of curving, or the state of being bent or curved; a curving or bending, normal or abnormal, as of a line or surface from a rectilinear direction; a bend; a curve. Cowper. The elegant curvature of their fronds. Darwin.
2. (Math.)
Defn: The amount of degree of bending of a mathematical curve, or the tendency at any point to depart from a tangent drawn to the curve at that point. Aberrancy of curvature (Geom.), the deviation of a curve from a curcular form. -Absolute curvature. See under Absolute. — Angle of curvature (Geom.), one that expresses the amount of curvature of a curve. — Chord of curvature. See under Chord. — Circle of curvature. See Osculating circle of a curve, under Circle. — Curvature of the spine (Med.), an abnormal curving of the spine, especially in a lateral direction. — Radius of curvature, the radius of the circle of curvature, or osculatory circle, at any point of a curve.
CURVE
Curve (krv), a. Etym: [L. curvus bent, curved. See Cirb.]
Defn: Bent without angles; crooked; curved; as, a curve line; a curve surface.
CURVE
Curve, n. Etym: [See Curve, a., Cirb.]
1. A bending without angles; that wcich is bent; a flexure; as, a curve in a railway or canal.
2. (Geom.)
Defn: A line described according to some low, and having no finite portion of it a straight line. Axis of a curve. See under Axis. — Curve of quickest descent. See Brachystochrone. — Curve tracing (Math.), the process of determining the shape, location, singular points, and other perculiarities of a curve from its equation. — Plane curve (Geom.), a curve such that when a plane passes through three points of the curve, it passes through all the other points of the curve. Any other curve is called a curve of double curvature, or a twisted curve.