Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/ii/paper-2/22i/a/solution

A point belongs to the smooth locus of a variety if its local ring is a regular local ring, meaning
Equivalently, the Zariski tangent space has the expected local dimension. Over the algebraically closed field, this agrees with smoothness for a reduced variety. In affine coordinates, the Jacobian criterion expresses it by the rank of the matrix of first derivatives of defining equations.

New to topics? Read the docs here!