Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Sail curve


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   consensus to delete; feel free to request userfication either at WP:UND or my talkpage. Skomorokh 12:46, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Sail curve

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No references or usable content RDBury (talk) 05:52, 11 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete Just a copy and paste of Wiktionary Jamesofur (talk) 06:04, 11 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Actually the copy and paste went the other way. It was almost deleted then but the deletion was canceled.--RDBury (talk) 06:09, 11 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Comment I searched the usual math sources (MathWorld etc.) for a reference but couldn't find anything. I doubt any such curve would be a catenary; I could be wrong but I've done a lot of research on the catenary in the past few weeks for that article. Not sure that it's even a real phrase since the wiktionary article comes from here.--RDBury (talk) 06:20, 11 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete per WP:DICTIONARY McMarcoP (talk) 09:55, 11 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete. Either the editor has mistakenly made a dictionary entry, or this is an attempt to present a theory of the curvature of sails, without proper sourcing. —SlamDiego&#8592;T 12:02, 11 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep/Merge - This seems to be a term coined by or somehow connected to James Bernoulli etal. "James Bernoulli made important contributions to the theory of differential equations and mechanics, the calculus of variations, the theory of infinite series, and the theory of probability. To be more specific, James gave the theory for the radius of curvature in terms of the derivatives, and he developed a theory of evolutes. He studied many special curves corresponding to physical problems, such as the cycloid, the catenary, the sail curve, the lemniscate, the elastic curve, and the caustic by refraction"
 * We may have to rewrite the definition and if a very short stub isn't allowed then find the correct parent article for it. My hunch is that a short paragraph explaining what it is would be preferable then fix the wiktionary entry based on what reliable sources tell us this actually is. -- Banj e  b oi   14:15, 11 August 2009 (UTC)
 * At least we know now that it's not a made-up phrase. Too bad the author didn't define it for us.--RDBury (talk) 15:23, 11 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Here p481. A more modern ref. would be nice.--RDBury (talk) 15:55, 11 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I found a more modern ref., still not in English though: "La chaînette est aussi le profil d’une voile rectangulaire attachée à 2 barres horizontale, enflée par un vent soufflant perpendiculairement à ces barres, en négligeant le poids propre de la voile par rapport à la force du vent, d'où le nom de "vélaire" donné par Jacques Bernoulli." From . In light of this I think the appropriate action would be to make the page redirect to Catenary.--RDBury (talk) 16:38, 11 August 2009 (UTC)
 * We can use non-English sources, it's best to try to provide reasonable translations,English translation. I'd like to get some opinions from folks immersed in the fields a bit as turning this into an acceptable stub could also be an option. We do have sourcing and other articles on these curves can be rather brief. -- Banj e  b oi   00:07, 12 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Delete unless more detail can be sourced. Even with the references discussed above this is still a dicdef, and not a very useful one at that. —David Eppstein (talk) 22:32, 12 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Ergo we would merge/redirect as this is a valid term that is just underdeveloped. -- Banj e  b oi   03:17, 13 August 2009 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.