Tangency to a plane along a curve forces zero Gaussian curvature

ID: tangency-to-a-plane-along-a-curve-forces-zero-gaussian-curvature

After a rigid motion, write the plane as and the surface locally as . Along the curve of tangency, and . Differentiating shows that the Hessian annihilates the nonzero tangent , so its determinant and therefore the Gaussian curvature vanish.

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