A generalized cylinder is a generalization of an ordinary
cylinder. Instead of being limited to a line, the center axis is a
continuous spine curve,
, for some parameter
. Instead of a constant radius, a radius function
is
defined along the spine. The value
is the radius of the
circle obtained as the cross section of the generalized cylinder at
the point
. The normal to the cross-section plane
is the tangent to the spine curve at
.