Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 3 25G a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Choose the orientation of a surface represented by a smooth Gauss map . The shape operator at isIf its principal curvatures are , then by definition
Let be a proper Euclidean motion of Euclidean three-space, so . Orient by transporting the normal:The chain rule gives the orthogonal conjugacyThe determinant and trace are invariant under similarity, so the Euclidean invariance of the shape operator yields
If the surface orientation is reversed, then and are multiplied by . Therefore the orientation reversal of surface curvature says