color every point of path based on curvature using python

Question

How do I encode the color in a scatter plot, to color every point (x,y) with black when the variable curvature is 0, then fade to green the higher the curvature it gets and fade to red the negative it gets?

Answer 1

Your question seem to raise several issue.

First, you have to compute the curvature of your (x,y) data. I suggest that you have a look here.

Then, perhaps you could have a look at all the available colomaps in matplotlib documentation. It may not be necessary to create your own colormap, though it is possible.

Finally, your code would be something like:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

x = range(10)
y = np.random.rand(10) # generate random points
curvature = range(10) #compute your curvature here

plt.figure()
plt.scatter(x, y, s=20, c=curvature, cmap=plt.cm.seismic)
#perhaps you want to link points:
plt.plot(x,y)