A simplified determination of the shape of a sugar beet taproot

Article history: Received: September 2014 Received in the revised form: December 2014 Accepted: January 2015 This work presents theoretical and empirical analysis of the usefulness of the selected geometrical models, for the purpose of determination of the sugar beet root shape, based on the available root parameters: diameter, length and the bulb root height. Analysis covered four models in the form of: a spherical sector, composed of a conic and a half of a sphere, composed of a conic and a spherical cap, composed of a conic and a half of an ellipsoid. Within the scope of the assumption of this paper it was proved, that the shape of a tap-root can approximate the simplified model comprising a conic and a half of an ellipsoid.