A normal vector may have length one (in which case it is a unit normal vector) or its length may represent the curvature of the object (a curvature vector). The normal distance of a point Q to a curve or to a surface is the Euclidean distance between Q and its foot P. Since a surface does not have a tangent plane at a singular point, it has no well-defined normal at that point: for example, the vertex of a cone. In general, it is possible to define a normal almost everywhere for a surface that is Lipschitz continuous. This article is about the normal to 3D surfaces. For the normal to 3D curves, see Frenet–Serret formulas. A polygon and its two normal vectors A normal to a surface at a point is the same as a normal to the tangent plane to the surface at the same point.

Normal to surfaces in 3D space [ edit ] A curved surface showing the unit normal vectors (blue arrows) to the surface Calculating a surface normal [ edit ]

The normal is often used in 3D computer graphics (notice the singular, as only one normal will be defined) to determine a surface's orientation toward a light source for flat shading, or the orientation of each of the surface's corners ( vertices) to mimic a curved surface with Phong shading. For a plane given by the equation a x + b y + c z + d = 0 , {\displaystyle ax+by+cz+d=0,} the vector n = ( a , b , c ) {\displaystyle \mathbf {n} =(a,b,c)} is a normal. or more simply from its implicit form F ( x , y , z ) = z − f ( x , y ) = 0 , {\displaystyle F(x,y,z)=z-f(x,y)=0,} giving n = ∇ F ( x , y , z ) = ( − ∂ f ∂ x , − ∂ f ∂ y , 1 ) . {\displaystyle \mathbf {n} =\nabla F(x,y,z)=\left(-{\tfrac {\partial f}{\partial x}},-{\tfrac {\partial f}{\partial y}},1\right).} The prison service should try to rehabilitate prisoners so that they can lead normal lives when they leave prison.

Specifically, given a 3×3 transformation matrix M , {\displaystyle \mathbf {M} ,} we can determine the matrix W {\displaystyle \mathbf {W} } that transforms a vector n {\displaystyle \mathbf {n} } perpendicular to the tangent plane t {\displaystyle \mathbf {t} } into a vector n ′ {\displaystyle \mathbf {n} If the normal is constructed as the cross product of tangent vectors (as described in the text above), it is a pseudovector. When applying a transform to a surface it is often useful to derive normals for the resulting surface from the original normals. In geometry, a normal is an object (e.g. a line, ray, or vector) that is perpendicular to a given object. For example, the normal line to a plane curve at a given point is the (infinite) line perpendicular to the tangent line to the curve at the point.in this section we only use the upper 3 × 3 {\displaystyle 3\times 3} matrix, as translation is irrelevant to the calculation For a convex polygon (such as a triangle), a surface normal can be calculated as the vector cross product of two (non-parallel) edges of the polygon. The concept has been generalized to differentiable manifolds of arbitrary dimension embedded in a Euclidean space. The normal vector space or normal space of a manifold at point P {\displaystyle P} is the set of vectors which are orthogonal to the tangent space at P . {\displaystyle P.}

r ( s , t ) = r 0 + s p + t q , {\displaystyle \mathbf {r} (s,t)=\mathbf {r} _{0}+s\mathbf {p} +t\mathbf {q} ,}

In three-dimensional space, a surface normal, or simply normal, to a surface at point P is a vector perpendicular to the tangent plane of the surface at P. The word normal is also used as an adjective: a line normal to a plane, the normal component of a force, the normal vector, etc. The concept of normality generalizes to orthogonality ( right angles). where r 0 {\displaystyle \mathbf {r} _{0}} is a point on the plane and p , q {\displaystyle \mathbf {p} ,\mathbf {q} } are non-parallel vectors pointing along the plane, a normal to the plane is a vector normal to both p {\displaystyle \mathbf {p} } and q , {\displaystyle \mathbf {q} ,} which can be found as the cross product n = p × q . {\displaystyle \mathbf {n} =\mathbf {p} \times \mathbf {q} .} The foot of a normal at a point of interest Q (analogous to the foot of a perpendicular) can be defined at the point P on the surface where the normal vector contains Q. n = ∂ r ∂ x × ∂ r ∂ y = ( 1 , 0 , ∂ f ∂ x ) × ( 0 , 1 , ∂ f ∂ y ) = ( − ∂ f ∂ x , − ∂ f ∂ y , 1 ) ; {\displaystyle \mathbf {n} ={\frac {\partial \mathbf {r} }{\partial x}}\times {\frac {\partial \mathbf {r} }{\partial y}}=\left(1,0,{\tfrac {\partial f}{\partial x}}\right)\times \left(0,1,{\tfrac {\partial f}{\partial y}}\right)=\left(-{\tfrac {\partial f}{\partial x}},-{\tfrac {\partial f}{\partial y}},1\right);} English–Arabic English–Bengali English–Catalan English–Czech English–Danish English–Hindi English–Korean English–Malay English–Marathi English–Russian English–Tamil English–Telugu English–Thai English–Turkish English–Ukrainian English–Vietnamese

n = ∂ r ∂ s × ∂ r ∂ t . {\displaystyle \mathbf {n} ={\frac {\partial \mathbf {r} }{\partial s}}\times {\frac {\partial \mathbf {r} }{\partial t}}.}