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Lecture Notes 7: 1.17 The Frenet-Serret Frame and Torsion

The document provides lecture notes on curves and surfaces. It discusses the Frenet-Serret frame for curves in R3, which includes the tangent (T), principal normal (N), and binormal (B) vectors. It defines torsion as the rate of change of the binormal and shows how curvature and torsion characterize curves. Specifically, a curve lies in a plane if torsion is zero everywhere, and the only curve with constant nonzero curvature and torsion is a circular helix. It also characterizes curves of constant curvature and torsion on a sphere.

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121 views5 pages

Lecture Notes 7: 1.17 The Frenet-Serret Frame and Torsion

The document provides lecture notes on curves and surfaces. It discusses the Frenet-Serret frame for curves in R3, which includes the tangent (T), principal normal (N), and binormal (B) vectors. It defines torsion as the rate of change of the binormal and shows how curvature and torsion characterize curves. Specifically, a curve lies in a plane if torsion is zero everywhere, and the only curve with constant nonzero curvature and torsion is a circular helix. It also characterizes curves of constant curvature and torsion on a sphere.

Uploaded by

Sanjeev Shukla
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Math 497C Oct 1, 20041

Curves and Surfaces


Fall 2004, PSU

Lecture Notes 7

1.17 The Frenet-Serret Frame and Torsion


Recall that if α : I → Rn is a unit speed curve, then the unit tangent vector
is defined as
T (t) := α0 (t).
Further, if κ(t) = kT 0 (t)k =
6 0, we may define the principal normal as

T 0 (t)
N (t) := .
κ(t)

As we saw earlier, in R2 , {T, N } form a moving frame whose derivatives


may be expressed in terms of {T, N } itself. In R3 , however, we need a third
vector to form a frame. This is achieved by defining the binormal as

B(t) := T (t) × N (t).

Then similar to the computations we did in finding the derivatives of {T, N },


it is easily shown that
 0   
T (t) 0 κ(t) 0 T (t)
 N (t)  =  −κ(t) 0 τ (t)   N (t)  ,
B(t) 0 −τ (t) 0 B(t)

where τ is the torsion which is defined as

τ (t) := −hB 0 , N i.

Note that torsion is well defined only when κ 6= 0, so that N is defined.


Torsion is a measure of how much a space curve deviates from lying in a
plane:
1
Last revised: September 27, 2007

1
Exercise 1. Show that if the torsion of a curve α : I → R3 is zero everywhere
then it lies in a plane. (Hint: We need to check that there exist a point p
and a (fixed) vector v in R3 such that hα(t) − p, vi = 0. Let v = B, and p
be any point of the curve.)
Exercise 2. Computer the curvature and torsion of the circular helix

(r cos t, r sin t, ht)

where r and h are constants. How does changing the values of r and h effect
the curvature and torsion.

1.18 Curves of Constant Curvature and Torsion


The above exercise shows that the curvature and torsion of a circular helix
are constant. The converse is also true
Theorem 3. The only curve α : I → R3 whose curvature and torsion are
nonzero constants is the circular helix.
The rest of this section develops a number of exercises which leads to the
proof of the above theorem
Exercise 4. Show that α : I → R3 is a circular helix (up to rigid motion)
provided that there exists a vector v in R3 such that

hT, vi = const,

and the projection of α into a plane orthogonal to v is a circle.


So first we need to show that when κ and τ are constants, v of the above
exercise can be found. We do this with the aid of the Frenet-Serret frame.
Since {T, N, B} is an orthonormal frame, we may arite

v = a(t)T (t) + b(t)N (t) + c(t)B(t).

Next we need to find a, b and c subject to the condtions that v is a constant


vector, i.e., v 0 = 0, and that hT, vi = const. The latter implies that

a = const

because hT, vi = a. In particular, we may set a = 1.

2
Exercise 5. By setting v 0 = 0 show that
κ
v = T + B,
τ
and check that v is the desired vector, i.e. hT, vi = const and v 0 = 0.
So to complete the proof of the theorem, only the following remains:
Exercise 6. Show that the projection of α into a plane orthogonal to v, i.e.,
v
α(t) := α(t) − hα(t), vi
kvk2
is a circle. (Hint: Compute the curvature of α.)

1.19 Intrinsic Characterization of Spherical Curves


In this section we derive a characterization in terms of curvature and torsion
for unit speed curves which lie on a shphere. Suppose α : I → R3 lies on
a sphere of radius r. Then there exists a point p in R3 (the center of the
sphere) such that
kα(t) − pk = r.
Thus differentiation yields

hT (t), α(t) − pi = 0.

Differentiating again we obtain:

hT 0 (t), α(t) − pi + 1 = 0.

The above expression shows that κ(t) 6= 0. Consequently N is well defined,


and we may rewrite the above expression as

κ(t)hN (t), α(t) − pi + 1 = 0.

Differentiating for the third time yields

κ0 (t)hN (t), α(t) − pi + κ(t)h−κ(t)T (t) + τ (t)B(t), α(t) − pi = 0,

which using the previous expressions above we may rewrite as


κ0 (t)
− + κ(t)τ (t)hB(t), α(t) − pi = 0.
κ(t)

3
Next note that, since {T, N, B} is orthonormal,

r2 = kα(t) − pk2
= hα(t) − p, T (t)i2 + hα(t) − p, N (t)i2 + hα(t) − p, B(t)i2
1
= 0 + 2 + hα(t) − p, B(t)i2 .
κ (t)

Thus, combining the previous two calculations, we obtain:


s
κ0 (t) 1
− + κ(t)τ (t) r2 − 2 = 0.
κ(t) κ (t)

Exercise 7. Check the converse, that is supposing that the curvature and
torsion of some curve satisfies the above expression, verify whether the curve
has to lie on a sphere of radius r.

To do the above exercise, we need to first find out where the center p of
the sphere could lie. To this end we start by writing

p = α(t) + a(t)T (t) + b(t)N (t) + c(t)B(t),

and try to find a(t), b(t) and c(t) so that p0 = (0, 0, 0), and kα(t) − pk = r.
To make things easier, we may note that α(t) = 0 (why?). Then we just
need to find b(t) and c(t) subject to the two constraints mentioned above.
We need to verify whether this is possible, when κ and τ satisfy the above
expression.

1.20 The Local Canonical form


In this section we show that all C 3 curve in R3 essentially look the same in
the neighborhood of any point which has nonvanishing curvature and a given
sign for torsion.
Let α : (−, ) → R3 be a C 3 curve. By Taylor’s theorem
1 1
α(t) = α(0) + α0 (0)t + α00 (0)t2 + α000 (0)t3 + R(t)
2 6

4
where limt→0 |R(t)|/t3 = 0, i.e., for t small, the remainder term R(t) is neg-
ligible. Now suppose that α has unit speed. Then

α0 = T
α00 = T 0 = κN
α000 = (κN )0 = κ0 N + κ(−κT + τ B) = −κ2 T + κ0 N + τ B.

So we have
κ0 N0 t2 (−κ20 T0 + κ00 N0 + τ0 B0 )t3
α(t) = α(0) + T0 t + + + R(t)
2 6
κ2 κ0 κ0 −κ0 τ0 3
= α(0) + (t − 0 t3 )T0 + ( t2 + 0 t3 )N0 + ( t )B0 + R(t)
6 2 6 6
Now if, after a rigid motion, we suppose that α(0) = (0, 0, 0), T = (1, 0, 0),
N = (0, 1, 0), and B = (0, 0, 1), then we have

κ20 3 κ0 2 κ00 3
 
−κ0 τ0 3
α(t) = t − t + Rx , t + t + Ry , t + Rz ,
6 2 6 6

where (Rx , Ry , Rz ) = R. It follows then that when t is small


 
κ0 2 −κ0 τ0 3
α(t) ≈ t, t, t .
2 6

Thus, up to third order of differentiation, any curve with nonvanishing cur-


vature in space may be approximated by a cubic curve. Also note that the
above approximtion shows that any planar curve with nonvanishing curvature
locally looks like a parabola.

Exercise 8. Show that the curvature of a space curve α at a point t0 with


nonvanishing curvature is the same as the curvature of the projection of α
into the the osculating plane at time t0 . (The osculating plane is the plane
generated by T and N .

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