characteristic curve

American  

noun

1. Photography. a graph used in sensitometry to show the relationship between exposure time and image density under constant developing conditions.

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characteristic curve British  

noun

1. photog a graph of the density of a particular photographic material plotted against the logarithm of the exposure producing this density

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Etymology

Origin of characteristic curve

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

Techniques such as “receiver operating characteristic curve analysis” examine how changing the threshold for an alert alters the balance between correctly identifying real events and mistakenly flagging harmless ones.

From Salon • May 12, 2026

Even so, the data are far too scanty to yield a really characteristic curve; but the continuous curve, which sums up the results of the eleven years, is more reliable, and obviously more satisfactory.

From Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1 The Evolution of Modesty; The Phenomena of Sexual Periodicity; Auto-Erotism by Ellis, Havelock

The geometrical interpretation of this condition is that the straight line LM must, at the point where it cuts the characteristic curve, be steeper than the tangent to characteristic curve.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 8 "Conduction, Electric" by Various

He ascertained that there was a complete correspondence between the sensitiveness of the tubes used as telegraphic instruments and the form of the characteristic curve of current and voltage drawn by the above-described method.

From Hertzian Wave Wireless Telegraphy by Fleming, John Ambrose

And yet—and yet Ethelred P. Wyndhurst was like Isaac—that characteristic curve of the nose, those thick eyebrows!

From Ghetto Tragedies by Zangwill, Israel