Email
me if you have any questions.
Lecturer: Li Wei-Ping Email: mawpli Office: 3447 Phone: 2358-7432
Classtime: Tue. and Thurs. 9-10:50am Classroom: 1504
Tutor: Liu Wanmin
Classtime: Monday 6-6:50pm Classroom: 4620
Text: M.P. do Carmo, Differential Geometry of Curves and Surfaces, published by Prentice-Hall.
References: The following three books are in the reserved counter on the 1st floor of the Library for 24-hour-loan basis.
J.A. Thorpe, Elementary Topics in Differential Geometry
B. O'Neil, Elementary Differential Geometry
A. Gray, Modern Differential Geometry of Curves and Surfaces
Remark: when you borrow these books, you need to indicate which edition you want to borrow.
Topics to be covered: This course studies the ``curviness" of curves and surfaces in space. Anybody who understands calculus and linear algebra should be able to follow the course. We are going to cover most of the materials in chapter one through three and some parts of chapter four. Hopefully after taking this course, you will be able to know how to measure the curviness of curves and surfaces in space and develop some geometric intuition at the same time. A brief outline: curvature and torsion of space curves; surfaces, the first fundamental form, the Gauss map, principal curvatures, Gaussian curvature of surfaces, the second fundamental form; some example of surfaces such as ruled surfaces; isometries, the Gauss theorem; the Gauss-Bonnet theorem (optional).
Homework: Homework will be assigned during lectures and collected on tutorial sessions. For example, I assign homework on Tue. and Thur. of the first week, TA then will collect these two pieces of homework in the tutorial session of the second week. You are encouraged to do homework no later than one day after it is assigned. You are also encouraged to think independently and, when you meet some GREAT difficulties in your course work, seek help from your classmates or me (send an e-mail to me to make an appointment if you cannot come during my office hours).
Grade: 15% homework, 35% midterm, and 50% final exam.
Midterm: October 19, Tuesday
Information: Please check my webpage often for latest informations about this course: http://home.ust.hk/~mawpli/home.html. I shall also prepare the web pages for this course. From there you can check the list of homework, list of exercises, some interesting web pages related to this course I edit for your convenience.