Word.ws English Dictionary

surface normal

surface normal noun: a unit vector at any given point P of a surface M which is perpendicular to the tangent plane T_P(M) of M at P. For a surface with parametrization ⃑x(u,v), it is given by.

Noun

surface normal (plural surface normals)

  1. (differential geometry) A unit vector at any given point P of a surface M which is perpendicular to the tangent plane T_P(M) of M at P. For a surface with parametrization ⃑x(u,v), it is given by
  2. (differential geometry) ⃑n=±⃑x_u×⃑x_v/ lVert ⃑x_u×⃑x_v rVert
  3. (differential geometry) where the sign can be chosen at will.

Forms of surface normal

pluralsurface normals

Questions about surface normal

What does surface normal mean?
Surface normal means a unit vector at any given point P of a surface M which is perpendicular to the tangent plane T_P(M) of M at P. For a surface with parametrization ⃑x(u,v), it is given by.
What part of speech is surface normal?
Surface normal is a noun.
What is the plural of surface normal?
The plural of surface normal is surface normals.

Words near surface normal in the dictionary

  1. surface mount technology
  2. surface mounted
  3. surface mounted technology
  4. surface noise
  5. surface noises
  6. surface normal
  7. surface normals
  8. surface of revolution
  9. surface patch
  10. surface patches
  11. surface plasmon

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: surface normal (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “surface normal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/surface_normal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.