This is a list of all courses offered by the Math Department.  Not all courses are offered each year.  What is provided is a general description of the courses and the prerequisites.  The actual content may vary.

Offered Course List Archived Courses

Math 436 - Differential Geometry of Curves and Surfaces I (Fall only)

Description

Starting with multi-variable calculus, this course will develop the theme of invariants attached to the intrinsic and extrinsic geometry of curves and surfaces. Using local coordinates, invariants will be defined, which will later turn out to be independent of the choice of coordinates. The contrasts between intrinsic and extrinsic concepts will be emphasized. The notion of a smooth submanifold will be explored in detail, as will various notions of curvature. The various notions of curvature of surfaces are related to curvature and torsion of curves. The contrast between local and global phenomena is also emphasized. In the past the course has dealt with surfaces of revolution, ruled surfaces, minimal surfaces, special curves on surfaces, Gauss's "Theorema Egregium" and the Gauss-Bonnet theorem.

Prerequisites

1 course with a minimum grade of C- from (MATH241, MATH340); and 1 course with a minimum grade of C- from (MATH461, MATH240, MATH341); and must have completed two 400-level MATH courses with a minimum grade of C- (not including MATH461, 478, and 480's).


Level of Rigor

Advanced


Sample Textbooks

Elementary Differential Geometry, by Andrew Pressley

Diff. Geometry of Curves & Surfaces, by Manfredo Do Carmo


Applications

Computer science, physics


If you like this course, you might also consider the following courses



Additional Notes

Students interested in grad school in MATH should consider this course

Topics

Curves in the plane and Euclidean space

Curvature and torsion, moving frames

Smooth surfaces in Euclidean space

Tangent spaces and normal vector fields

Orientability

First and second fundamental form

Normal curvature

Intrinsic geometry of surfaces