Letter to the editor: On the definition of geometric continuity (Q1118331)

During the last ten years several definitions of the ``smoothness'' of composite curves have been given. Most of them were called ``visual'' or ``geometric'' continuity. In the letter the author shows that there are only two different kinds of smoothness, namely ``contact of order n'' and ``continuity of geometric invariants''. Let \(x=x(t)\) be a composite continuous curve in \(R^ d\). It is shown that the smoothness of order n at the junction point \(x_+=x_-\) can be written as \([x,\dot x,...,x^{(n)}]_+=[x,\dot x,...,x^{(n)}]_-A.\) Both definitions of smoothness differ in elements of the connection matrix A, which has a special form \[ \left[\begin{matrix} 1 & 0 & \ldots & 0 \\ & \alpha & \ldots & * \\ && \ddots & \vdots \\ &&& \alpha^ n \end{matrix}\right], \] and in the resulting algebraic and geometric properties.