Arc length | EPFL Graph Search

Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?

Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.

Arc length is the distance between two points along a section of a curve. Determining the length of an irregular arc segment by approximating the arc segment as connected (straight) line segments is also called curve rectification. A rectifiable curve has a finite number of segments in its rectification (so the curve has a finite length). If a curve can be parameterized as an injective and continuously differentiable function (i.e., the derivative is a continuous function) f\colon[a,b]\to\R^n, then the curve is rectifiable (i.e., it has a finite length). The advent of infinitesimal calculus led to a general formula that provides closed-form solutions in some cases. General approach A curve in the plane can be approximated by connecting a finite number of points on the curve using (straight) line segments to create a polygonal path. Since it is straightforward to calculate the length of each linear segment (using the Pythagorean theorem in Euclidean spac

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related publications (36)

Related publications

Related people (2)

Related people

Related units (2)

Related units

Related concepts (67)

Related concepts

Related courses (50)

Related courses

Related lectures (103)

Related lectures

Sphere

A sphere () is a geometrical object that is a three-dimensional analogue to a two-dimensional circle. Formally, a sphere is the set of points that are all at the same distance r from a given point

Curve

In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line, but that does not have to be straight. Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by

Metric space

In mathematics, a metric space is a set together with a notion of distance between its elements, usually called points. The distance is measured by a function called a metric or distance function.

On Linear Interpolation in the Latent Space of Deep Generative Models

Quentin Christian Becker, Mike Yan Michelis

The underlying geometrical structure of the latent space in deep generative models is in most cases not Euclidean, which may lead to biases when comparing interpolation capabilities of two models. Smoothness and plausibility of linear interpolations in latent space are associated with the quality of the underlying generative model. In this paper, we show that not all such interpolations are comparable as they can deviate arbitrarily from the shortest interpolation curve given by the geodesic. This deviation is revealed by computing curve lengths with the pull-back metric of the generative model, finding shorter curves than the straight line between endpoints, and measuring a non-zero relative length improvement on this straight line. This leads to a strategy to compare linear interpolations across two generative models. We also show the effect and importance of choosing an appropriate output space for computing shorter curves. For this computation we derive an extension of the pull-back metric.

2021

Computational Approach to the Geometry of Compact Riemann Surfaces

Manuel Racle

The goal of this document is to provide a generalmethod for the computational approach to the topology and geometry of compact Riemann surfaces. The approach is inspired by the paradigms of object oriented programming. Our methods allow us in particular to model, for numerical and computational purposes, a compact Riemann surface given by Fenchel-Nielsen parameters with respect to an arbitrary underlying graph, this in a uniformand robust manner. With this programming model established we proceed by proposing an algorithmthat produces explicit compact fundamental domains of compact Riemann surfaces as well as generators of the corresponding Fuchsian groups. In particular, we shall explain how onemay obtain convex geodesic canonical fundamental polygons. In a second part we explain in what manner simple closed geodesics are represented in our model. This will lead us to an algorithm that enumerates all these geodesics up to a given prescribed length. Finally, we shall briefly overview a number of possible applications of our method, such as finding the systoles of a Riemann surface, or drawing its Birman-Series set in a fundamental domain.

EPFL2013

Trace coordinates of Teichmüller spaces of Riemann surfaces

Thomas Gauglhofer

Using an algebraic formalism based on matrices in SL(2,R), we explicitly give the Teichmüller spaces of Riemann surfaces of signature (0,4) (X pieces), (1,2) ("Fish" pieces) and (2,0) in trace coordinates. The approach, based upon gluing together two building blocks (Q and Y pieces), is then extended to tree-like pants decomposition for higher signatures (g,n) and limit cases such as surfaces with cusps or cone-like singularities. Given the Teichmüller spaces, we establish a set of generators of their modular groups for signatures (0,4), (1,2) and (2,0) in trace coordinates using transformations acting separately on the building blocks and an algorithm on dividing geodesics. The fact that these generators act particularly nice in trace coordinates gives further motivation to this choice (rather then the one of Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates). This allows us to solve the Riemann moduli problem for X pieces, "Fish" pieces and surfaces of genus 2; i.e. to give the moduli spaces as the fundamental domains for the action of the modular groups on the Teichmüller spaces. In this context, we also give an algorithm deciding whether two Riemann surfaces of signatures (0,4), (1,2) or (2,0) given by points in the Teichmüller space are isometric or not. As a consequence, we show the following two results concerning simple closed geodesics: On any purely hyperbolic Riemann surface (containing neither cusps nor cone-like singularities), the longest of two simple closed geodesics that intersect one another n times is of length at least ln, a sharp constant independent of the surface. We explicitly give ln for n = 1,2,3 and study its behaviour when n goes to infinity. X pieces are spectrally rigid with respect to the length spectrum of simple closed geodesics.

EPFL2006

MATH-189: Mathematics

Ce cours a pour but de donner les fondements de mathématiques nécessaires à l'architecte contemporain évoluant dans une école polytechnique.

COM-406: Foundations of Data Science

We discuss a set of topics that are important for the understanding of modern data science but that are typically not taught in an introductory ML course. In particular we discuss fundamental ideas and techniques that come from probability, information theory as well as signal processing.

ME-484: Numerical methods in biomechanics

Students understand and apply numerical methods (FEM) to answer a research question in biomechanics. They know how to develop, verify and validate multi-physics and multi-scale numerical models. They can analyse and comment results in an oral presentation and a written report.