Evolute

In the differential geometry of curves, the evolute of a curve is the

locus of all its centers of curvature. That is to say that when the
center of curvature of each point on a curve is drawn, the resultant
shape will be the evolute of that curve. The evolute of a circle is
therefore a single point at its center.[1] Equivalently, an evolute is
the envelope of the normals to a curve.

The evolute of a curve, a surface, or more generally a submanifold,

is the caustic of the normal map. Let M be a smooth, regular
The evolute of a curve (blue
submanifold in Rn. For each point p in M and each vector v , parabola) is the locus of all its
based at p and normal to M, we associate the point p + v . This centers of curvature (red).
defines a Lagrangian map, called the normal map. The caustic of
the normal map is the evolute of M.[2]

Evolutes are closely connected to involutes: A curve is the evolute

of any of its involutes.

Contents
History
Evolute of a parametric curve
Properties of the evolute
Examples
The evolute of a curve (in this case,
Evolute of a parabola
an ellipse) is the envelope of its
Evolute of an ellipse normals.
Evolute of a cycloid
Evolutes of some curves
Radial curve
References

History
Apollonius (c. 200  BC) discussed evolutes in Book V of his Conics. However, Huygens is sometimes
credited with being the first to study them (1673). Huygens formulated his theory of evolutes sometime
around 1659 to help solve the problem of finding the tautochrone curve, which in turn helped him construct
an isochronous pendulum. This was because the tautochrone curve is a cycloid, and the cycloid has the
unique property that its evolute is also a cycloid. The theory of evolutes, in fact, allowed Huygens to
achieve many results that would later be found using calculus.[3]

Evolute of a parametric curve

If is the parametric representation of a regular curve in the plane with its curvature
nowhere 0 and its curvature radius and the unit normal pointing to the curvature center, then

describes the evolute of the given curve.

For and one gets

and

Properties of the evolute

In order to derive properties of a regular curve it is advantageous to
use the arc length of the given curve as its parameter, because of
and (see Frenet–Serret formulas). Hence the
tangent vector of the evolute is:

From this equation one gets the following properties of the evolute:
The normal at point P is the tangent
At points with the evolute is not regular. That at the curvature center C.
means: at points with maximal or minimal curvature
(vertices of the given curve) the evolute has cusps. (See
the diagrams of the evolutes of the parabola, the ellipse, the cycloid and the nephroid.)
For any arc of the evolute that does not include a cusp, the length of the arc equals the
difference between the radii of curvature at its endpoints. This fact leads to an easy proof of
the Tait–Kneser theorem on nesting of osculating circles.[4]
The normals of the given curve at points of nonzero curvature are tangents to the evolute,
and the normals of the curve at points of zero curvature are asymptotes to the evolute.
Hence: the evolute is the envelope of the normals of the given curve.
At sections of the curve with or the curve is an involute of its evolute. (In the
diagram: The blue parabola is an involute of the red semicubic parabola, which is actually
the evolute of the blue parabola.)

Proof of the last property:

Let be at the section of consideration. An involute of the evolute can be described as follows:
where is a fixed string extension (see Involute of a parameterized curve ).

With and one gets

That means: For the string extension the given curve is reproduced.

Parallel curves have the same evolute.

Proof: A parallel curve with distance off the given curve has the parametric representation
and the radius of curvature (see parallel curve). Hence the evolute of the parallel curve is

Examples

Evolute of a parabola

For the parabola with the parametric representation (t,t^{2})

one gets from the formulae above the equations:

which describes a semicubic parabola

Evolute of an ellipse

For the ellipse with the parametric representation one gets:[5]

These are the equations of a non symmetric astroid. Eliminating parameter leads to the implicit
representation
Evolute of a cycloid

For the cycloid with the parametric representation

the evolute will be:[6]

Evolute (red) of an ellipse

which describes a transposed replica of itself.

Evolutes of some curves

The evolute

of a parabola is a semicubic parabola (see above),

of an ellipse is a non symmetric astroid (see
above),
of a line is an ideal point,
Cycloid (blue), its osculating circle (red) and
of a nephroid is a nephroid (half as large, see
diagram), evolute (green).

of an astroid is an astroid (twice as large),

of a cardioid is a cardioid (one third as large),
of a circle is its center,
of a deltoid is a deltoid (three times as large),
of a cycloid is a congruent cycloid,
of a logarithmic spiral is the same logarithmic
spiral,
of a tractrix is a catenary.

Radial curve
The evolute of the large nephroid (blue) is
A curve with a similar definition is the radial of a given the small nephroid (red).
curve. For each point on the curve take the vector from the
point to the center of curvature and translate it so that it
begins at the origin. Then the locus of points at the end of such vectors is called the radial of the curve. The
equation for the radial is obtained by removing the x and y terms from the equation of the evolute. This
produces
References
1. Weisstein, Eric W. "Circle Evolute" (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/CircleEvolute.html).
MathWorld.
2. Arnold, V. I.; Varchenko, A. N.; Gusein-Zade, S. M. (1985). The Classification of Critical
Points, Caustics and Wave Fronts: Singularities of Differentiable Maps, Vol 1. Birkhäuser.
ISBN 0-8176-3187-9.
3. Yoder, Joella G. (2004). Unrolling Time: Christiaan Huygens and the Mathematization of
Nature. Cambridge University Press.
4. Ghys, Étienne; Tabachnikov, Sergei; Timorin, Vladlen (2013). "Osculating curves: around the
Tait-Kneser theorem". The Mathematical Intelligencer. 35 (1): 61–66. arXiv:1207.5662 (http
s://arxiv.org/abs/1207.5662). doi:10.1007/s00283-012-9336-6 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs0
0283-012-9336-6). MR 3041992 (https://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=3041992).
5. R.Courant: Vorlesungen über Differential- und Integralrechnung. Band 1, Springer-Verlag,
1955, S. 268.
6. Weisstein, Eric W. "Cycloid Evolute" (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/CycloidEvolute.html).
MathWorld.

Weisstein, Eric W. "Evolute" (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Evolute.html). MathWorld.

Sokolov, D.D. (2001) [1994], "Evolute" (https://www.encyclopediaofmath.org/index.php?title=
Evolute), Encyclopedia of Mathematics, EMS Press
Yates, R. C.: A Handbook on Curves and Their Properties, J. W. Edwards (1952),
"Evolutes." pp. 86ff
Evolute on 2d curves. (http://www.2dcurves.com/derived/curvature.html#evolute)

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