osculating circle

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Noun1.osculating circle - the circle that touches a curve (on the concave side) and whose radius is the radius of curvature
circle of curvature
circle - ellipse in which the two axes are of equal length; a plane curve generated by one point moving at a constant distance from a fixed point; "he calculated the circumference of the circle"
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References in periodicals archive
To automate the process of defining the tangents at the endpoints, we may use circular arc approximation (osculating circle) that best fits the endpoints and points surrounding them in order to determine the tangent angle at both endpoints.
Log-aesthetic curves for shape completion problem
Regardless of the techniques used in the proof, the key idea is that the behavior of this limit is completely determined by the osculating circle of the fixed curve at the origin.
Not surprisingly, this result depends critically on an osculating circle of the fixed surface at the origin.
Analytic, geometric, and numeric analysis of the Shrinking Circle and Sphere Problems
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