Example of a curve which is C1 continuous but not G1 continuous.

continuitycurvesgeometry

I'm reading about parametric and geometric continuity using these UC Berkeley Lecture notes.

In the section "Graph of the curve", this is written:

While the conditions for parametric continuity seem stronger than
geometric continuity, they are not. There are C1 curves that are not
G1.

Can anyone give an example for such a curve?

Found a similar question here but the example given is of a curve which is G1 continuous but not C1 continuous.

These Cornell lectures seemingly give an example of such a curve but it is not very clear. (Page 6 of the pdf)

Best Answer

Consider the parameterized curve $\gamma(t)=(t^3,t^2)$. This parameterization is clearly $C^1$, because each component is (infinitely!) differentiable.

However, the graph of the curve looks like this:

a curve with a cusp at the origin

As you can see, the left and right tangent vectors at the origin (where $t=0$) do not match, so the curve is not $G^1$.

This is possible because $\gamma'(0)=\left<0,0\right>$. That is, the parameterization comes gradually to a stop at $t=0$, which allows it to smoothly traverse a geometrically unsmooth curve.

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