Minimal surface

In mathematics, a minimal surface is a surface that locally minimizes its area. This is equivalent to having a mean curvature of zero.

Description

The term "minimal surface" is used because these surfaces originally arose as surfaces that minimized total surface area subject to some constraint.

Physical models of area-minimizing minimal surfaces can be made by dipping a wire frame into a soap solution, forming a soap film, which is a minimal surface whose boundary is the wire frame.

However the term is used for more general surfaces that may self-intersect or do not have constraints.

For a given constraint there may also exist several minimal surfaces with different areas (for example, see minimal surface of revolution): the standard definitions only relate to a local optimum, not a global optimum.

See also

• Bernstein's problem
• Bilinear interpolation
• Bryant surface
• Curvature
• Enneper–Weierstrass parameterization
• Harmonic map
• Harmonic morphism
• Patterns in nature
• Plateau's problem
• Schwarz minimal surface
• Soap bubble
• Surface Evolver
• Stretched grid method
• Tensile structure
• Triply periodic minimal surface
• Weaire–Phelan structure

External links

• Minimal surface @ Wikipedia