Arc
An arc is a connected portion of a curve, especially a continuous segment of a circle’s circumference.
Geometry for Programmers
An arc is a connected portion of a curve, especially a portion of a circle bounded by endpoint angles.
- How it is used
- Uses arcs as curved building blocks for trajectories that combine smooth motion with constant-speed parameterization.
- How deep it goes
- Derives arc centers, intersections, and orthogonality equations, but defers vector-product theory and actual arc-computation code.
- Examples
- Uses a crawling bug, line-and-arc trajectories, tangent vectors, and SymPy-generated arc-line equations.
- What you can do after
- Apply arcs via geometric formulas and SymPy-generated code to construct smooth, constant-speed line-and-curve trajectories.
How Computers Make Books
A circular arc is a continuous portion of the circumference of a circle.
- How it is used
- Uses circular arcs as simple curved primitives for constructing scalable typeface letter forms.
- How deep it goes
- Explains construction, scaling, drafting limits, and Bézier approximations, but stops short of deriving curve equations.
- Examples
- Uses a letter C, an ampersand, circles, a letter O, and physical compass and French-curve drafting tools.
- What you can do after
- Evaluate when circular arcs suit a shape and recognize when more flexible curve representations are needed.
Related concepts
- Bézier curvealternative to · A Bézier curve is a parametric curve whose shape is determined by control points through Bernstein basis functions.
- circlepart of · A circle is a plane curve consisting of points at a fixed distance from a common center.
- biarcpart of · A biarc is a curve segment composed of two circular arcs joined with continuous position and tangent direction.
- trajectorypart of · A trajectory is an ordered sequence of states, actions, events, or operations that records or describes progression through successive steps or over time.
- line segmentequivalent to · A line segment is the finite portion of a straight line bounded by two endpoints.
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