Note first that if
is a point on the curve
then
Then, for any
we have
showing that
Hence
is continuously differentiable at every point
in the subintervals
Indeed
for all
near
and hence
is piecewise smooth.
Obviously,
for all
implying that
Since
for all but a finite number of points
it follows that
for all but a finite number of points,
and the theorem is proved.
Let
and
be as in the theorem.
Then, for all but a finite number of points
on the curve
we have
From the theorem we have that
for all but a finite number of points
Also,
is strictly increasing, so that
for all points
where
is differentiable.
And in fact,
for all but a finite number of
's, because
is either
or
and these are nonzero except for a finite number of points.
Now the corollary follows by direct substitution.
REMARK If we think of
as a vector in the plane
then the corollary asserts that the direction of this vector is
independent of the parameterization, at least at all but a finite number of points.This direction vector will come up again as the unit tangent of the curve.
The adjective “smooth” is meant to suggest that the curve is bending in
some reasonable way, and specifically it should mean that the curve has a tangent, or tangential direction, at each point.We give the definition of tangential direction below, but we note that in the
context of a moving particle, the tangential directionis that direction in which the particle would continue to move if the force
that is keeping it on the curve were totally removed.If the derivative
then this vector is the velocity vector,
and its direction is exactly what we should mean by the tangential direction.
The adjective “piecewise” will allow us to consider curves that have a finite number
of points where there is no tangential direction, e.g., where there are “corners.”
We are carefully orienting our curves at the moment.
A curve
from
to
is being distinguished from the same curve
from
to
even though the set
is the same in both instances.
Which way we traverse a curve will be of great importance at the end of this chapter,when we come to Green's Theorem.
-
Let
the range of
be a piecewise smooth curve,and let
be a point on the curve.
We say that the curve
has a tangential direction at
relative to the parameterization
if the following limit exists:
If this limit exists, it is a vector of length 1 in
and this unit vector is called the unit tangent (relative to the parameterization
) to
at
The curve
has a
unit tangent at the point
if there exists
a parameterization
for which the unit tangent at
relative to
exists.
- Restate the definition of tangential direction and unit tangent using the
version of the plane instead of the
version.
That is, restate the definition in terms of pairs
of real numbers instead of a complex number
- Suppose
is a parameterization of a piecewise smooth curve
and that
is a point where
is differentiable
with
Show that the unit tangent (relative to the parameterization
)
to
at
exists and equals
Conclude that, except possibly for a finite number of points, the unit tangent to
at
is independent of the parameterization.
- Let
be the graph of the function
for
Is
a smooth curve?
Is it a piecewise smooth curve?Does
have a unit tangent at every point?
- Let
be the graph of the function
for
Is
a smooth curve?
Is it a piecewise smooth curve?Does
have a unit tangent at every point?
- Consider the set
that is the right half of the unit circle in the plane.
Let
be defined by
and let
be defined by
Prove that
and
are both parameterizations of
Discuss the existence of a unit tangent at the point
relative to these two parameterizations.
- Suppose
is a parameterization of a curve
from
to
Define
on
by
Show that
is a parameterization of a curve from
to
- Suppose
is a
smooth, real-valued function defined on the closed interval
and let
be the graph of
Show that
is a smooth curve, and find a “natural”
parameterization
of
What is the unit tangent to
at the point
- Let
and
be two distinct points in
and define
by
Show that
is a parameterization of the straight line from the point
to the point
Consequently, a straight line is a smooth curve.
(Indeed, what is the definition of a straight line?)
- Define a function
by
Show that the range
of
is a smooth curve, and that
is a parameterization of
- Define
on
by
For what curve is
a parametrization?
- Let
be
distinct points in the plane, and suppose
that the polygonal line joing these points in order never crosses itself.Construct a parameterization of that polygonal line.
- Let
be a piecewise smooth geometric set determined by the interval
and the
two piecewise smooth bounding functions
and
Suppose
and
are two points in the interior
of
Show that there exists a
piecewise smooth curve
joining
to
i.e., a piecewise smooth function
with
and
that lies entirely in
- Let
be a piecewise smooth curve, and suppose
is a parameterization of
Let
be a subinterval of
Show that the range of the restriction of
to
is a smooth curve.
Suppose
is a smooth curve, parameterized by
- Suppose that
for all
Prove that there exists a smooth, real-valued function
on some closed interval
such that
coincides with the graph of
HINT:
should be something like
- What if
for all
Let
be the curve that is the
range of the function
where
- Is
a piecewise smooth curve?
Is it a smooth curve?What points
and
does it join?
- Is
a parameterization of
- Find a parameterization for
by a function
- Find the unit tangent to
and the point
Let
be the curve parameterized by
defined by
- What curve does
parameterize?
- Find another parameterization of this curve, but base on the interval