Q: Is curvature any of a number of loosely related concepts in different areas of geometry? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Is curvature an extrinsic measure of curvature equal to half the sum of the principal curvatures, k1 + k2/2? ¶
A: Yes, It has a dimension of length−1. Mean curvature is closely related to the first variation of surface area.
Q: Is curvature small? ¶
A: Yes, where the curve undergoes a tight turn, the curvature is large.
Q: Is curvature thus the determinant of the shape tensor and the mean curvature is half its trace? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Is curvature the amount by which a geometric object such as a surface deviates from being a flat plane? ¶
A: Yes, or a curve from being straight as in the case of a line, but this is defined in different ways depending on the context.
Q: Is curvature extrinsic and depends on the embedding? ¶
A: Yes, for instance, a cylinder and a plane are locally isometric but the mean curvature of a plane is zero while that of a cylinder is nonzero.
Q: Are curvatures the eigenvalues of the shape operator? ¶
A: Yes, and in fact the shape operator and second fundamental form have the same matrix representation with respect to a pair of orthonormal vectors of the tangent plane.
Q: Is curvature available? ¶
A: Yes, and which take the surface's unit normal vector, u into account.
Q: Is curvature normally a scalar quantity? ¶
A: Yes, but one may also define a curvature vector that takes into account the direction of the bend in addition to its magnitude.
Q: Is curvature physical? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Is curvature intrinsic in the sense that it is a property defined at every point in the space? ¶
A: Yes, and rather than a property defined with respect to a larger space that contains it.
Q: Is curvature related geometrically by the following observation? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Is curvature the shape operator? ¶
A: Yes, and which is a linear operator from the tangent plane to itself.
Q: Is curvature the scalar curvature and Ricci curvature? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Is curvature called flat? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Is curvature an intrinsic property of the surface, meaning it does not depend on the particular embedding of the surface? ¶
A: Yes, intuitively, this means that ants living on the surface could determine the Gaussian curvature.
Q: Is curvature also defined in much more general contexts? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Is curvature defined in analogous ways in three and higher dimensions? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Is curvature defined as the reciprocal of the curvature? ¶
A: Yes.