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Joseph O'Rourke
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Geodesics on the twisted pseudosphere (Dini's surface)

I wonder how difficult it is to compute geodesics on Dini's Surface, a twisted pseudosphere?

Here is one parametrization, from Alfred Gray's Modern Differential Geometry of Curves and Surfaces, p.495: \begin{eqnarray} x(u,v) &=& a \cos (u) \sin (v)\\ y(u,v) &=& a \sin (u) \sin (v)\\ z(u,v) &=& a \left[\cos (v)+\log \left(\tan \frac{v}{2}\right)\right]+b u \end{eqnarray} Dini's surface has constant curvature of $\frac{-1}{a^2+b^2}$.

And here is an image, for $a=1,\; b=\frac{1}{12}$, with $u \in [0,8\pi]$:
       DiniSnap
What I especially wonder is if there is a geodesic that spirals down through every turn, which would be kinda cool. :-)

Joseph O'Rourke
  • 150.9k
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