The local property of a curve represented by a number that characterizes how widely the tangent to the curve varies between two points on the curve.
Themean curvaturebetween points A and B of an arc or a curve is the ratio between the change in the slope of the tangent from A to B and the length of the arc (or curve) AB.
Example
In this illustration, where arcs AB et BC have the same length, the curvature between points A and B is greater than the curvature between points B and C, as the absolute value of the change in the slope of the tangent between points A and B is greater than the absolute value of the change in the slope of the tangent between points B and C.