curvature | meaning of curvature in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English | LDOCE

From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary EnglishShapes, patterns, Mathscurvaturecur‧va‧ture /ˈkɜːvətʃə $ ˈkɜːrvətʃər/ noun [countable, uncountable] technical    CFthe state of being curved, or the degree to which something is curvedcurvature of  the curvature of the Earth’s surface  He suffered from curvature of the spine.Examples from the Corpuscurvature• They contain the usual coordinate singularity on the hypersurface but, for this class, this is not a curvature singularity.• In this case only, the surface corresponds to a curvature singularity.• The different components refer to the different curvatures in different directions in the space-time.• They would also give rise to a smaller Schwarzschild mass parameter, and hence greater curvature on the horizon.• Using an element of known direction of curvature one can thus conveniently determine the direction of curvature of another element.• This, the Riemann curvature tensor, quantifies space-time curvature.• When is small compared with unity, the curvature is small and general relativistic effects are negligible.• Their curvatures can only be obtained rigorously from the solution of Einstein's equation.curvature of• a curvature of the spine• the curvature of the Earth's surfaceOrigin curvature (1400-1500) Latin curvatura, from curvare; → CURVE2