How does "spline" mean "curved"? I am learning about "splined leaders" in CAD drawings: The cryptic words "spline" & "leader" seem to indicate curved arrows: To me, neither "spline" nor "leader" indicate a curved arrow but that's what they call them in the text books: I can see how a "leader" might "lead" you to somewhere; but how does "spline" mean curved?

In mathematics a splines form a special class of functions used to fit a curve to a series of points. I've used them to create calibration curves from experimental data, although eventually I decided that cubics, fitted to four adjacent points, to be more useful than splines. Any good drawing software will have a way to fit splines to produce a smooth-looking curve from a set of points. In that situation you're probably not fitting to experimentally obtained points, but rather moving the points around until you get a suitably attractive curve. In the days before computers, draughtsmen created splines with the aid of a flexible ruler. I've never heard "spline" used to mean an arrow, but I suppose you can always tack an arrowhead onto the end of a curved line. "Leader" is presumably a term of art that I haven't met.

No need. All they have to do is look at to find that spline (like many words) has multiple meanings depending on context.

How does the word "spline" mean curved (and why not just use the word curved)?

Oct 06, 2014 22 Replies

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Mike 11 years ago

No need. All they have to do is look at

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to find that spline (like many words) has multiple meanings depending on context.

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Leon 11 years ago

Probably the same way he distinguishes, multiples of "two" intersecting lines running "to" infinity, "too".

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Leon 11 years ago

A spline is ALSO a curved line.

You do realize that many words have many different meanings....

Consider, leaves, race, etc.

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