Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2008/iii/paper-18/5/ii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 18 5 ii Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Identify with the product of two unit circles and use the unit sphere . The surjective degree-zero sphere-to-torus map isGiven any torus point, choose its two angle representatives with . Then , so completes a preimage on the sphere. Thus the map is surjective. The explicit homotopy , , contracts it to a constant map. By homotopy invariance of mapping degree, , despite surjectivity.
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