Newbie question - Divide curve, the parameter output

In the divide curve component, what exactly is the parameter output? What do those numbers mean?

It is a location along the curves domain, probably the most common way to evaluate a location on a curve and used by many components (for instance check out the inputs of Shatter Curve).

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Yeah, I should have mentioned earlier. I can understand the practical use of the parameters in evaluate curve inputs and shatter curve but not the numbers that show in the parameter output.

The curve parameter space link in your tells me that I’m probably going too deep. I just clicked on the page and haven’t gone through it as I suck really bad at complex maths. :grimacing:

Well I don’t fully understand what the numbers mean either, but what you want in most cases is to reparameterize the curve. That makes the parameter values always go from 0 (start of curve) to 1 (end of curve).

reparameterize

Most important to know is this:

The first thing which confuses people is that the domain of a curve has little or nothing to do with the length of the curve. You can change the domain without affecting the shape or size of a curve, and you can change the shape without affecting the domain. Worse, the amount of curve that belongs to some part of the domain has little or nothing to do with the size of that sub-domain.

and this: Curve parameters, an analogy | I Eat Bugs For Breakfast

in short from David’s anology consider length is like the distance of the road, domain (or curve parameter) is like travel time on the road. Different curves will cause you to travel at different speeds. Say it takes 30 minutes to drive from point A to point B, then 0.5 of the roads reparametrized (0 to 1) domain would be how far you drove in 15 minutes (half the time), which isn’t necessarily half of the roads length because maybe some parts of the road had more curves or kinks causing you to drive slower or faster than on other parts of the road.

Knowing why exactly they end up being the numbers they are doesn’t matter, they are the results of equations but easily changeable, they just have to be something. All we need to know is how to evaluate and use them.