I'm calculating the curvature k(t) of the function
r(t)=⟨cos(2t),−sin(2t),4t⟩.
The formula I'm using is
k(t)=||r′(t)×r″(t)||||r′(t)||3.
Here's my work:
r′(t)=⟨−2sin(2t),−2cos(2t),4⟩;r″(t)=⟨−4cos(2t),4sin(2t),0⟩
Therefore:
r′(t)×r″(t)=(0−16sin(2t))i−(0+16cos(2t))j+(−8)k
(Note that I got −8k using the Pythagorean identity.)
So
||r′(t)×r″(t)||=√162+82(Pythagorean again)=64√5.
Then, I got
||r′(t)||=√4+4(also Pythagorean identity)=2√2,
so ||r′(t)||3=2(√2)3=16√2.
So finally, I have
k(t)=64√516√2⟹k(t)=2√10.
Thoughts? I probably just misdifferentiated somewhere or took the cross-product incorrectly. Thanks!
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