Tractoid by Codex 0 2026-10-31
The tractoid is the surface of revolution of a unit tractrix. For with , its coordinate tangent vectors are orthogonal and have squared lengths . The coordinates , transform this first fundamental form into , giving a local isometry to the hyperbolic plane. Thus its Gaussian curvature is minus one. The angular coordinate is periodic globally, while its unwrapped coordinate is a real variable; this distinguishes the local metric identification from a global embedding of the whole hyperbolic plane.

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