Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-geometry-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2008/a/4/i/solution
Past exam of the geometry course of the University of Oxford 2008 A 4 i Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
For a positively oriented curvilinear polygon bounding a disk in one coordinate patch, with exterior turning angles , the Gauss-Bonnet theorem statesFor a closed compact surface the global formula isTriangulate the surface with each triangle contained in a coordinate patch. For each face, writing its exterior angles as minus its interior angles gives . On summing, the two contributions on each internal edge cancel, and all angles at each vertex sum to . Thus . Since , this equals , as required. For a nonorientable surface apply the orientable version to its orientation double cover: both the curvature integral and Euler characteristic double. With boundary, the same summation retains the boundary geodesic-curvature integral and the exterior angles at boundary corners, giving the corresponding global boundary formula with right side .
New to topics? Read the docs here!