'Plane curve' definitions:
Definition of 'Plane curve'
From: GCIDE
- Plane \Plane\, a. [L. planus: cf. F. plan. See Plan, a.] Without elevations or depressions; even; level; flat; lying in, or constituting, a plane; as, a plane surface. [1913 Webster]
- Note: In science, this word (instead of plain) is almost exclusively used to designate a flat or level surface. [1913 Webster]
- Plane angle, the angle included between two straight lines in a plane.
- Plane chart, Plane curve. See under Chart and Curve.
- Plane figure, a figure all points of which lie in the same plane. If bounded by straight lines it is a rectilinear plane figure, if by curved lines it is a curvilinear plane figure.
- Plane geometry, that part of geometry which treats of the relations and properties of plane figures.
- Plane problem, a problem which can be solved geometrically by the aid of the right line and circle only.
- Plane sailing (Naut.), the method of computing a ship's place and course on the supposition that the earth's surface is a plane.
- Plane scale (Naut.), a scale for the use of navigators, on which are graduated chords, sines, tangents, secants, rhumbs, geographical miles, etc.
- Plane surveying, surveying in which the curvature of the earth is disregarded; ordinary field and topographical surveying of tracts of moderate extent.
- Plane table, an instrument used for plotting the lines of a survey on paper in the field.
- Plane trigonometry, the branch of trigonometry in which its principles are applied to plane triangles. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Plane curve'
From: GCIDE
- Curve \Curve\, n. [See Curve, a., Cirb.]
- 1. A bending without angles; that which is bent; a flexure; as, a curve in a railway or canal. [1913 Webster]
- 2. (Geom.) A line described according to some low, and having no finite portion of it a straight line. [1913 Webster]
- Axis of a curve. See under Axis.
- Curve of quickest descent. See Brachystochrone.
- Curve tracing (Math.), the process of determining the shape, location, singular points, and other peculiarities of a curve from its equation.
- Plane curve (Geom.), a curve such that when a plane passes through three points of the curve, it passes through all the other points of the curve. Any other curve is called a curve of double curvature, or a twisted curve. [1913 Webster]