Durham University Michaelmas 2016

Pavel Tumarkin

Differential Geometry III, Solutions 4 (Week 4)

Space curves - 1
4.1. Check that for two curves , : I R3 holds

((u) (u))0 = 0 (u) (u) + (u) 0 (u),

where is the cross-product in R3 .

Solution: One can do a direct calculation in coordinates similar to Exercise 1.3. Alternatively, one can observe
that coordinates of a cross-product are expressed via certain determinants which are miltilinear functions.

4.2. (?) Find the curvature and torsion of the curve

(u) = (au, bu2 , cu3 ).

Solution:
We use Theorem 4.6. Since

0 (u) = (a, 2bu, 3cu2 ),

00 (u) = (0, 2b, 6cu),
000
(u) = (0, 0, 6c),

we have
k0 00 k k(6bcu2 , 6acu, 2ab)k 2(9b2 c2 u4 + 9a2 c2 u2 + a2 b2 )1/2
(u) = = = ,
k0 k3 (a2 + 4b2 u2 + 9c2 u4 )3/2 (a2 + 4b2 u2 + 9c2 u4 )3/2
(6bcu2 , 6acu, 2ab) (0, 0, 6c) 3abc
(u) = 2 2 4 2 2 2 2 2
=
4(9b c u + 9a c u + a b ) (9b c u + 9a2 c2 u2 + a2 b2 )
2 2 4

4.3. (?) Assume that : I R3 is a regular space curve parametrized by arc length.
(a) Determine all regular curves with vanishing curvature .
Hint: use Theorem 4.6
(b) Show that if the torsion of vanishes, then the trace of lies in a plane.
Hint: do NOT use Theorem 4.6

Solution:
(a) By Theorem 4.6, (s) = 0 if and only if 0 (s) 00 (s) = 0. Note that since is regular, 0 (s) 6= 0.
If 00 (s) 0, then 0 (s) = (a, b, c) for some constants a, b, c R, and thus

(s) = 0 + s(a, b, c)

is a line.
 Assume now that 00 (s) 6= 0 at some point s (and thus, in some neighborhood of s). Then the unit normal
n(s) is the unit vector defined by
00 (s)
n(s) = ,
k00 (s)k
so,
k00 (s)k
(s) = = k00 (s)k =
6 0,
kn(s)k
which leads to a contradiction.
Therefore, the only regular curve with zero curvature is a line.
(b) By Serret-Frenet equations, b0 = n. Thus, if 0, then b is constant. In particular, all the planes
spanned by t(s) and n(s) are parallel. We want to show that they all coincide.
Choose any s0 , and consider the function

f (s) = b ((s) (s0 ))

The derivative of this function is

f 0 (s) = b0 ((s) (s0 )) + b ((s) (s0 ))0 = 0 ((s) (s0 )) + b 0 (s) = 0

which implies that f (s) is constant. Since for f (s0 ) = 0, we see that (s) satisfies

b ((s) 0 ) = 0

for constant vectors b and 0 . The equation above is an equation of a plane in R3 .

4.4. Assume that (s) = (x(s), y(s), 0), i.e., the trace of lies in the plane z = 0. Calculate the
curvature of and its torsion . What is the relation of the curvature of the space curve
and the (signed) curvature of the plane curve : I R2 defined by (s) = (x(s), y(s)) (i.e., the
projection of the space curve to the plane z = 0)?

Solution:
Since lies in the plane z = 0, the tangent and normal vectors also lie in the plane, so the binormal vector
is constant. Using the equation b0 = n we see that 0. The curvature of is clearly the absolute value
of the curvature of .

4.5. Consider the regular curve given by

 s s s
(s) = a cos , a sin , b , s R,
c c c
where a, b, c > 0 and c2 = a2 + b2 . The curve is called a helix.
(a) Show that the trace of lies on the cylinder x2 + y 2 = a2 .
(b) Show that is parametrized by arc length.
(c) Determine the curvature and torsion of (and notice that they are both constant).
(d) Determine the equation of the plane through n(s) and t(s) at each point of (this plane is
called the osculating plane).
(e) Show that the line through (s) in direction n(s) meets the axis of the cylinder orthogonally.
(f) Show that the tangent lines to make a constant angle with the axis of the cylinder.

Solution:
(a)  s s
x(s)2 + y(s)2 = a2 cos2 + sin2 = a2 ,
c c
i.e., the trace of lies on the cylinder x2 + y 2 = a2 .
(b) We have  
0 a s a s b
(s) = sin , cos , ,
c c c c c
which implies
a2 b2
k0 (s)k2 = 2
+ 2 = 1.
c c
This shows that is unit speed.
(c) We have
a s a s 
00 (s) = 2

cos , 2
sin ,0 ,
 ac s c a c s c 
000 (s) = sin , 3 cos , 0 .
c3 c c c
This implies
s a2
 
0 00 ab s ab
(s) (s) = sin , cos , .
c3 c c3 c c3
We conclude that
a2 (a2 + b2 ) a2
k0 (s) 00 (s)k2 = = ,
c6 c4
i.e.,
k0 00 k a
= 0 3
= 2.
k k c
Moreover, we have
a2 b s a2 b s a2 b
(0 (s) 00 (s)) 000 (s) = 6
sin2 + 6 cos2 = 6 .
c c c c c
This implies that
a2 b c4 b
= 6
2 = 2.
c a c
(d) The osculating plane is orthogonal to the binormal vector b(s), and thus to 0 (s)00 (s) which is collinear
to b(s). We have already computed in (c) that

s a2
 
ab s ab
0 (s) 00 (s) = sin , cos , .
c3 c c3 c c3

Therefore, the equation of the osculating plane at (s) = (x(s), y(s), z(s)) can be written as

ab s ab s a2
3
sin (x x(s)) 3 cos (y y(s)) + 3 (z z(s)) = 0.
c c c c c
After plugging in the explicit expressions for (s) and multiplying by c3 /a we obtain
s s s
xb sin yb cos + az ab = 0
c c c

(e) Normalizing the expression for 00 (s) obtained in (c), we see that n(s) = cos sc , sin sc , 0 . Since the

z-coordinate of n(s) is zero, n(s) is orthogonal to the z-axis (which is also the axis of the cylinder). Note
also that an(s) is a projection of (s) onto the horizontal plane, so the line (s) + un(s) meets the z-axis
at u = a.
(f) To find the cosine of the angle, we need to compute the dot product of the unit tangent vector and the
unit vector in the direction of the axis of the cylinder. The latter has coordinates (0, 0, 1), so the cosine is
equal to  
a s a s b b
(0, 0, 1) sin , cos , =
c c c c c c
which is constant.