Intrinsic flatness of a circular cylinder

ID: intrinsic-flatness-of-a-circular-cylinder

A circular cylinder of radius has induced metric locally equal to with . Its Riemann curvature tensor therefore vanishes, despite its nonzero extrinsic curvature. With outward unit normal and convention , its trace is and its principal curvatures are and zero. Its averaged mean curvature is . The angular identification changes global topology, not local flatness.

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