Normal (geometry) Normal (geometry) In geometry, a normal is an object such as a line or vector that is perpendicular to a given object. For example, in two dimensions, the normal line to a curve at a given point is the line perpendicular to the tangent line to the curve at the point. In three dimensions, a surface normal, or simply normal, to a surface at a point "P" is a vector that is perpendicular to the tangent plane to that surface at "P". The word "normal" is also used as an adjective: a line normal to a plane, the normal component
Line (geometry) used to express the collinearity between three points by: However, there are other notions of distance (such as the Manhattan distance) for which this property is not true. In the geometries where the concept of a line is a primitive notion, as may be the case in some synthetic geometries, other methods of determining collinearity are needed. In a sense, all lines in Euclidean geometry are equal, in that, without coordinates, one can not tell them apart from one another. However, lines may play special roles with respect to other objects in the geometry and be divided into types according