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Computer Aided Geometric Design
Volume 10, Issue 6, December 1993, Pages 551-569
 
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doi:10.1016/0167-8396(93)90031-W    How to Cite or Link Using DOI (Opens New Window)
Copyright © 1993 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Algebraically rectifiable parametric curves

Takis SakkalisCorresponding Author Contact Information, E-mail The Corresponding Author

Rida T. Farouki

Department of Mathematical Sciences, Oakland University, Rochester, MI 48309, USA IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, P.O. Box 218, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA

Available online 21 March 2002.

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Abstract

Sufficient and necessary conditions for the arc length of a polynomial parametric curve to be an algebraic function of the parameter are formulated. It is shown that if the arc length is algebraic, it is no more complicated than the square root of a polynomial. Polynomial curves that have this property encompass the Pythagorean-hodograph curves—for which the arc length is just a polynomial in the parameter—as a proper subset. The algebraically rectifiable cubics, other than Pythagorean-hodograph curves, constitute a single-parameter family of cuspidal curves. The implications of the general algebraic rectifiability criterion are also completely enumerated in the case of quartics, in terms of their cusps and intrinsic shape freedoms. Finally, the characterization and construction of algebraically rectifiable quintics is briefly sketched. These forms offer a rich repertoire of curvilinear profiles, whose lengths are readily determined without numerical quadrature, for practical design problems.

Author Keywords: Parametric curves; arc length; rectification; algebraic functions.

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