Roulette (curve) application of this is that a square wheel could roll without bouncing on a road that is a matched series of catenary arcs. Roulette (curve) In the differential geometry of curves, a roulette is a kind of curve, generalizing cycloids, epicycloids, hypocycloids, trochoids, and involutes. Roughly speaking, a roulette is the curve described by a point (called the "generator" or "pole") attached to a given curve as that curve rolls without slipping, along a second given curve that is fixed. More precisely, given a curve attached to a plane which is moving so that the curve rolls, without slipping, along
Torsion of a curve Torsion of a curve In the elementary differential geometry of curves in three dimensions, the torsion of a curve measures how sharply it is twisting out of the plane of curvature. Taken together, the curvature and the torsion of a space curve are analogous to the curvature of a plane curve. For example, they are coefficients in the system of differential equations for the Frenet frame given by the Frenet–Serret formulas. Let "C" be a space curve parametrized by arc length formula_1 and with the unit tangent vector t. If the curvature formula_2 of "C" at a certain point is