09-23-2021-0604 - osculating circle

 In differential geometry of curves, the osculating circle of a sufficiently smooth plane curve at a given point p on the curve has been traditionally defined as the circle passing through p and a pair of additional points on the curve infinitesimally close to p. Its center lies on the inner normal line, and its curvature defines the curvature of the given curve at that point. This circle, which is the one among all tangent circles at the given point that approaches the curve most tightly, was named circulus osculans (Latin for "kissing circle") by Leibniz.

The center and radius of the osculating circle at a given point are called center of curvature and radius of curvature of the curve at that point. A geometric construction was described by Isaac Newton in his Principia:

There being given, in any places, the velocity with which a body describes a given figure, by means of forces directed to some common centre: to find that centre.

— Isaac Newton, Principia; PROPOSITION V. PROBLEM I.

Osculating circles of the Archimedean spiral, nested by the Tait–Kneser theorem. "The spiral itself is not drawn: we see it as the locus of points where the circles are especially close to each other."^[1]

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osculating_circle