The curve is symmetric in both coordinate axes and under interchange of and . Its shape, including its eight inflection points, is:
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Writing , the surface of revolution has equation
Let
Its gradient is
If this vanished, then and , but at such a point , not five. Hence zero is a regular value, and the regular level set theorem shows that is a smooth embedded surface.
For a surface of revolution, the two principal curvatures are the curvature of the meridian and the normal curvature of a parallel. Along ,
so the normal is vertical in the meridian plane and the parallel principal curvature vanishes. Therefore the Gaussian curvature, the product of the principal curvatures, is zero there.
These are not the only zero-curvature points. The meridian itself has inflection points, at which its principal curvature vanishes. Setting and , their positive squared coordinates satisfy
Besides interchanging and , the solution is approximately
Each corresponding meridian inflection point sweeps out another circle on , so does not exhaust the zero set of the Gaussian curvature.