Spring 2011
MATH 4250/6250 HOMEPAGE
Ted Shifrin

MATH 4250/6250, Differential Geometry, meets TR 9:30-10:45

Text: Notes by T. Shifrin, Differential Geometry: A First Course in Curves and Surfaces, available from Baxter Street Bookstore, 360 Baxter St., for approximately $13 or in .pdf form.

Other sources are:

D. Hilbert and S. Cohn-Vossen's classic, Geometry and the Imagination (reissued by Chelsea in 1952)
A. Gray, Modern Differential Geometry of Curves and Surfaces with Mathematica, second edition (CRC Press, 1997) — best for learning how to use Mathematica in the context of differential geometry
R. Millman and G. Parker, Elements of Differential Geometry (Prentice Hall 1977)
M. DoCarmo, Differential Geometry of Curves and Surfaces (Prentice Hall 1976)

Homework (40%) will be collected approximately every three classes. There will be two midterm exams (15% each) and a final exam (30%). On each assignment, I will give a selection of problems, of which you must work five; typically I will specify one or two problems of central interest that everyone must do. There will be a few required Mathematica explorations.

Final exam: Tuesday, May 10, 2011, 8–11 a.m.

Course Syllabus

Mathematica Primer: If you have Mathematica on your computer, this file should open in Mathematica. If not, paste its contents into a Mathematica notebook and ... presto ...

A challenge: Find all the (true, round) circles on a torus of revolution.