An Introduction to Differential Geometry: The Theory of Surfaces
Date
2017
Authors
Gikonyo, Kuria Joseph
Kinyua, Kande Dickson
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Science Publishing Group
Abstract
From a mathematical perspective, a surface is a generalization of a plane which does not necessarily require being flat, that is, the curvature is not necessarily zero. Often, a surface is defined by equations that are satisfied by some coordinates of its points. A surface may also be defined as the image, in some space of dimensions at least three, of a continuous function of two variables (some further conditions are required to insure that the image is not a curve). In this case, one says that one has a parametric surface, which is parametrized by these two variables, called parameters. Parametric equations of surfaces are often irregular at some points. This is formalized by the concept of manifold: in the context of manifolds, typically in topology and differential geometry, a surface is a manifold of dimension two; this means that a surface is a topological space such that every point has a neighborhood which is homeomorphic to an open subset of the Euclidean plane. A parametric surface is the image of an open subset of the Euclidean plane by a continuous function, in a topological space, generally a Euclidean space of dimension at least three. The paper aims at giving an introduction to the theory of surfaces from differential geometry perspective.
Description
Keywords
Curvature, Differential Geometry, Geodesics, Manifolds, Parametrized, Surface
Citation
Pure and Applied Mathematics Journal 2017; 6(3-1): 6-11