Skip to main content

equation solving - Finding unit tangent, normal, and binormal vectors for a given r(t)


For my Calc III class, I need to find $T(t), N(t)$, and $B(t)$ for $t=1, 2$, and $-1$, given $r(t)=\{t,t^2,t^3\}$.


I've got Mathematica, but I've never used it before and I'm not sure how to coerce it into solving this. (My professor told us to use a computer, as it starts getting pretty nasty around $T'(t)$. By hand, $$T(t)=\frac{1}{ \sqrt{(1+4t^2+9t^4})}\{1,2t,3t^2\}$$


I've tried defining r as stated above and using D,Norm, and CrossProduct.


However, I get a bunch of Abs in my outputs (am I missing an assumption?). Additionally, I can't seem to google up how to ask Mathematica to sub in a specific value for $t$, once I get the equations worked out properly.




Answer



Mathematica wouldn't be much helpful if one applied only formulae calculated by hand.
Here we demonstrate how to calculate the desired geometric objects with the system having a definition of the curve r[t] :


r[t_] := {t, t^2, t^3}

now we call uT the unit tangent vector to r[t]. Since we'd like it only for real parameters we add an assumption to Simplify that t is a real number. Similarly we can do it for the normal vector vN[t] and the binormal vB[t] :


uT[t_] = Simplify[ r'[t] / Norm[ r'[t] ], t ∈ Reals];
vN[t_] = Simplify[ uT'[t]/ Norm[ uT'[t]], t ∈ Reals];
vB[t_] = Simplify[ Cross[r'[t], r''[t]] / Norm[ Cross[r'[t], r''[t]] ], t ∈ Reals];


let's write down the formulae :


{uT[t], vN[t], vB[t]} // Column // TraditionalForm

enter image description here


Edit


Definitions provided above are clearly more useful than only to write them down. They are powerful enough to animate a moving reper along a curve r[t]. Indeed the vectors uT[t], vN[t] and vB[t] are orthogonal and normalized, e.g.


Simplify[ Norm /@ {uT[t], vN[t], vB[t]}, t ∈ Reals]


 {1, 1, 1}


To demonstrate a moving reper we can use ParametricPlot3D and Arrow enclosed in Animate :


Animate[
Show[ ParametricPlot3D[ {r[t]}, {t, -1.3, 1.3}, PlotStyle -> {Blue, Thick}],
Graphics3D[{ {Thick, Darker @ Red, Arrow[{r[s], r[s] + uT[s]}]},
{Thick, Darker @ Green, Arrow[{r[s], r[s] + vB[s]}]},
{Thick, Darker @ Cyan, Arrow[{r[s], r[s] + vN[s]}]}}],
PlotRange -> {{-2, 2}, {-2, 2}, {-2, 2}}, ViewPoint -> {4, 6, 0},
ImageSize -> 600],
{s, -1, 1}]


enter image description here


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

front end - keyboard shortcut to invoke Insert new matrix

I frequently need to type in some matrices, and the menu command Insert > Table/Matrix > New... allows matrices with lines drawn between columns and rows, which is very helpful. I would like to make a keyboard shortcut for it, but cannot find the relevant frontend token command (4209405) for it. Since the FullForm[] and InputForm[] of matrices with lines drawn between rows and columns is the same as those without lines, it's hard to do this via 3rd party system-wide text expanders (e.g. autohotkey or atext on mac). How does one assign a keyboard shortcut for the menu item Insert > Table/Matrix > New... , preferably using only mathematica? Thanks! Answer In the MenuSetup.tr (for linux located in the $InstallationDirectory/SystemFiles/FrontEnd/TextResources/X/ directory), I changed the line MenuItem["&New...", "CreateGridBoxDialog"] to read MenuItem["&New...", "CreateGridBoxDialog", MenuKey["m", Modifiers-...

How to thread a list

I have data in format data = {{a1, a2}, {b1, b2}, {c1, c2}, {d1, d2}} Tableform: I want to thread it to : tdata = {{{a1, b1}, {a2, b2}}, {{a1, c1}, {a2, c2}}, {{a1, d1}, {a2, d2}}} Tableform: And I would like to do better then pseudofunction[n_] := Transpose[{data2[[1]], data2[[n]]}]; SetAttributes[pseudofunction, Listable]; Range[2, 4] // pseudofunction Here is my benchmark data, where data3 is normal sample of real data. data3 = Drop[ExcelWorkBook[[Column1 ;; Column4]], None, 1]; data2 = {a #, b #, c #, d #} & /@ Range[1, 10^5]; data = RandomReal[{0, 1}, {10^6, 4}]; Here is my benchmark code kptnw[list_] := Transpose[{Table[First@#, {Length@# - 1}], Rest@#}, {3, 1, 2}] &@list kptnw2[list_] := Transpose[{ConstantArray[First@#, Length@# - 1], Rest@#}, {3, 1, 2}] &@list OleksandrR[list_] := Flatten[Outer[List, List@First[list], Rest[list], 1], {{2}, {1, 4}}] paradox2[list_] := Partition[Riffle[list[[1]], #], 2] & /@ Drop[list, 1] RM[list_] := FoldList[Transpose[{First@li...

dynamic - How can I make a clickable ArrayPlot that returns input?

I would like to create a dynamic ArrayPlot so that the rectangles, when clicked, provide the input. Can I use ArrayPlot for this? Or is there something else I should have to use? Answer ArrayPlot is much more than just a simple array like Grid : it represents a ranged 2D dataset, and its visualization can be finetuned by options like DataReversed and DataRange . These features make it quite complicated to reproduce the same layout and order with Grid . Here I offer AnnotatedArrayPlot which comes in handy when your dataset is more than just a flat 2D array. The dynamic interface allows highlighting individual cells and possibly interacting with them. AnnotatedArrayPlot works the same way as ArrayPlot and accepts the same options plus Enabled , HighlightCoordinates , HighlightStyle and HighlightElementFunction . data = {{Missing["HasSomeMoreData"], GrayLevel[ 1], {RGBColor[0, 1, 1], RGBColor[0, 0, 1], GrayLevel[1]}, RGBColor[0, 1, 0]}, {GrayLevel[0], GrayLevel...