Inflections on curves in two and three dimensions (Q2640315)

In the first part, the number of inflections of a curve in \({\mathbb{R}}^ 2\) is investigated, i.e. the number of times the curve changes from turning in a clockwise direction to turning in an anti-clockwise direction, or conversely. It is shown that the number of inflections of a certain class of curves (including B-spline curves) in \({\mathbb{R}}^ 2\) cannot exceed that of its control polygon, provided that the control polygon does not turn too sharply. In general, a cubic polynomial curve may have two inflections while its control polygon has no inflections. For curves in \({\mathbb{R}}^ 3\), the author defines the inflection count to be the maximal number of inflections that the curve can have when viewed from all directions. A classification of the inflection count in terms of the direction of its curvature vector is given. It is shown that the inflection count of a non-planar cubic polynomial curve is always two, while the inflection count of a quadratic spline is equal to that of its control polygon. Finally, a classification of the inflection count of polygonal arcs is given.