Sinuous is something with windings or curves.
Sinuoso is a word that comes from sinuōsus , a word from the Latin language. It is an adjective that refers to that which has curves, elevations, serpentines or sinuses .
For example: “Be careful when you go to see Christ: the path to get to him is very winding,” “The boy was exhausted after walking the winding path all day,” “The circuit has a winding layout that prevents “Cars pick up speed.”
The sinusoid
The concept of sine , belonging to mathematics, is related to this term, since its graphical representation of this function also offers a curve, which is called a sinusoid .
One of the characteristics that stand out at first glance about a sinusoid is its fluidity, and the fact that it never closes in a circle, but continues to generate a wave to infinity. This image of endless curves that follow one another explains why a winding road is considered difficult to traverse, full of obstacles.
winding road
It is common for the road that runs along a mountain to be described as winding to allow vehicles to reach the top.
This characteristic makes the road in question have many curves; In addition, vehicles usually circulate between the mountain wall and the cliff. In summary, it can be said that winding roads are dangerous and require a lot of attention from drivers to avoid accidents.
The roads that skirt mountains are usually winding.
Symbolic use of the term
Symbolically, the idea of sinuous is used with reference to the difficulties or obstacles that exist to reach a goal or to achieve an objective. The expression, in this case, represents an analogy between a physically winding path and a symbolic journey that is very difficult.
Suppose a man manages to become a doctor after a decade of study. He entered university at age 18 but then missed two years due to health problems. Furthermore, since he always had to work to support his family, it was difficult for him to make time to study. That is why it can be said that the subject in question had to go through a winding path until he could graduate.
The idea of curves as synonymous with difficulties or challenges is not unusual. In fact, the spiral (a flat curve that rotates indefinitely around a point, moving further and further away from it with each turn) is also interpreted as a path full of crises that we must overcome to develop intellectually.
It should be noted that in both cases there is the promise of improvement after each curve : far from being a dead end or a bridge that is interrupted and leads to an abyss, both a sinuous path and a spiral continue, allowing us to always keep moving forward. that we wish to face each of its challenges .
"The Long and Winding Road"
Within the field of music we have to highlight the existence of different compositions that have the term in question in their titles. This would be the case, for example, of the song “The Long and Winding Road” , which was sung by the group The Beatles under the original title “The Long and Winding Road” .
Paul McCartney was the member of the group that specifically composed this ballad, which is part of the album “Let It Be” , presented in 1970. It is considered that this single is the last one released while that band was together and that, in addition, It was the last of the successes he managed to have on the sales charts in the United States .
There are many aspects of interest, in addition to those already explained, that revolve around this composition, such as the following:
-It was composed by its author on the farm he had in Scotland and was specifically inspired by a winding road that exists in the country: the B842 , which extends for 50 kilometers.
-It is a sad ballad with which McCartney tried to express to a certain extent the complicated situation that was being experienced within the musical group.
-It was recorded between January 26 and 31, 1969 and experts on The Beatles affirm that the images that have been preserved from that moment show, among other things, the absolute and voluntary reluctance that John Lennon showed when performing it.
Video games with winding roads
In the world of video games , especially in the early years, winding roads were ideal for the design of racing titles, since thanks to the curves it was easy to hide the abrupt drawing of objects that appeared in the distance.
On the other hand, before the emergence of games with three-dimensional graphics, it was not possible to create truly circular race tracks or scenarios, since somehow the course always went "in the same direction "; Therefore, through a sinuous design, the developers managed to create the illusion of complete curves, simply by maintaining the inclination for a long time and moving the background image .
Computer-generated graphics make use of the concept of sine in various ways, although generally the calculations to obtain the sinusoid are done at loading time , and not while the user interacts with the product, since they are very demanding on the processor. .