Skip to main content

Quadric Surfaces

Quadric surfaces are defined as functions of the form: \[ Ax^2 + By^2 + Cz^2 + Dxy + Exz + Fyz + Gx + Hy + Iz + J = 0 \] There are many surfaces that can be created from this equation. There are many factors that can affect the shape of the created surface. The signs of the coefficients can result in completely different shapes and the magnitude of these coefficients stretch and shrink the surface. One example of these quadric surfaces is a hyperboloid of one sheet. This shape visually appears as a hyperbola that has been rotated around an axis. This equation can be represented in two main ways: implicitly as a function of x, y, and z, and as a parameterization. For this case, the parameterization will be used.

Paratmerizations of the Surface

The parameterization of this surface is a fun one: \[ f(s,t) = ( (e^{.2s} + e^{-.2s})\cos{30t}, .5(e^{.2s} + e^{-.2s})\sin{30t}, .5(e^{.2s} + e^{-.2s}) \] Euler's constant is a result of the use of the hyperbolic trig functions used to parameterize the original function. In terms of hyperbolic trig functions the parameterization can be represented as: \[ f(s,t) = (2\cosh(.2s)\cos(30t), \cosh(.2s)\sin(30t), \sinh(.2s)) \] At this point, we have a parameterization that gives the quadric surface:
This hyperboloid of one sheet is a single piece that opens up on the z-axis. The surface is twice as long along the x-axis as compared to the y-axis.

Taking a Slice

For any quadric surface, a plane, or some other line or curve, can be uesd to cut through the surface. The result is a slice of the 3d shape. This slice is interesting as it the shape of this slice can vary greatly throughout the same quadric surface. Let's cut this hyperboloid into two different pieces using a plane. The plane that will be used to slice is: \[ x = z \] This 45 degree plane will take out a nice hyperbola that contains componenets of the hyperboloid on both the negative and positive sides of every axis. This hyperbola will also have symmetry about the x-axis. Here is a picture of the hyperboloid with the slice shown:

The Resulting Slice

The slice mentioned above was created by setting x equal to z. This will most easily be done by formulating the implicit equation of the surface. From the parameterization, it can be seen that the radius in the x direction is 2, and the radius in the y direction is 1. It can also be determined that the coefficient for the z value is also 1, since there are no constants in the parameterization. This means that the formula in terms of x, y, and z is: \[ \frac{x^2}{4} + y^2 - z^2 =1 \] Setting z = x gives: \[ \frac{x^2}{4} + y^2 - x^2 = -3\frac{x^2}{4} + y^2 = 1 \] Which is the equation of a hyperbola. Hyperboloids are interesting as they can generate many different shapes depending on the hyperboloid itself and the position of the slice from the hyperboloid. Under the right conditions, the possible slices of an ellipse include circles, ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas. This box of chocolates makes this specific surfaces quite appealing for taking a slice. I wanted to take out a hyperbola from this surfaces as it is the most interesting. This slice takes the a piece from either side of the x-axis to generate a symmetrical section. This piece also has the property that when rotated around the z-axis in an elliptical path, it recreates the original surface. This is true for any hyperobla with symmetry about the x-axis.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Do Over: Integration Over a Region in a Plane

Throughout the semester we have covered a variety of topics and how their mathematical orientation applies to real world scenarios. One topic we discussed, and I would like to revisit, is integration over a region in a plane which involves calculating a double integral. Integrating functions of two variables allows us to calculate the volume under the function in a 3D space. You can see a more in depth description and my previous example in my blog post, https://ukyma391.blogspot.com/2021/09/integration-for-over-regions-in-plane_27.html . I want to revisit this topic because in my previous attempt my volume calculations were incorrect, and my print lacked structural stability. I believed this print and calculation was the topic I could most improve on and wanted to give it another chance. What needed Improvement? The function used previously was f(x) = cos(xy) bounded on [-3,3] x [-1,3]. After solving for the estimated and actual volume, it was difficult to represent in a print...

Minimal Surfaces

Minimum surfaces can be described in many equivalent ways. Today, we are going to focus on minimum surfaces by defining it using curvature. A surface is a minimum surface if and only if the mean curvature at every point is zero. This means that every point on the surface is a saddle point with equal and opposite curvature allowing the smallest surface area possible to form. Curvature helps define a minimal surface by looking at the normal vector. For a surface in R 3 , there is a tangent plane at each point. At each point in the surface, there is a normal vector perpendicular to the tangent plane. Then, we can intersect any plane that contains the normal vector with the surface to get a curve. Therefore, the mean curvature of a surface is defined by the following equation. Where theta is an angle from a starting plane that contains the normal vector. For this week’s project, we will be demonstrating minimum surfaces with a frame and soap bubbles! How It Works Minimum surfac...

Do Over: Ruled Surfaces

Why to choose this project to repeat For the do over project, I would like to choose the ruled surfaces. I don't think my last project was creative, and the 3D printed effect was not very satisfactory. In the previous attempts, all the lines are connected between a straight line and a circle. This connection structure is relatively uncomplicated. The printed model has too many lines, resulting in too dense line arrangement. The gaps between lines are too small, and the final effect is that all the lines are connected into a curved surface, which is far from the effect I expected. What to be improved In this do over project, I would like to improve in two aspects. Firstly, a different ruled surface is chosen. In the previous model, one curve is a unit circle on the \(x-y\) plane, and the ruled surface is a right circular conoid. In this do over project, it is replaced by two border lines. Each borderline is in the shape of an isosceles right triangl...