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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1999 Apr 27;96(9):4769–4773. doi: 10.1073/pnas.96.9.4769

Global curvature, thickness, and the ideal shapes of knots

Oscar Gonzalez 1, John H Maddocks 1
PMCID: PMC21766  PMID: 10220368

Abstract

The global radius of curvature of a space curve is introduced. This function is related to, but distinct from, the standard local radius of curvature and is connected to various physically appealing properties of a curve. In particular, the global radius of curvature function provides a concise characterization of the thickness of a curve, and of certain ideal shapes of knots as have been investigated within the context of DNA.


Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

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