Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 ia Paper 3 3C ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Divide the velocity by the speed calculated above. The unit tangent vector isIts derivative isBecause , the principal normal vector has the direction of , givingThis is a unit vector, and for every real . The curvature of a space curve is , so the principal normal vector is defined everywhere on this curve. The same perpendicularity follows from constant tangent component forces perpendicular principal normals: is constant, and differentiating this identity forces the normal component along to vanish.