First fundamental form ($I$)

The first fundamental form of a surface $S\subseteq {\mathbb{R}}^3$ is the restriction of the ambient inner product to each tangent space $T_{p}S$. For a parametrized surface $X(u,v)$, it is

A local isometry between Riemannian manifolds is a local diffeomorphism $f$ with $f^{\ast }{g}_N=g_M$. Equivalently, its differentials are isometric linear isomorphisms between tangent spaces. It preserves the Levi-Civita connection, intrinsic sectional curvature, and affinely parametrized geodesics. A map whose differentials are merely isometric injections is an isometric immersion; the local diffeomorphism requirement distinguishes these notions.

A local isometry from a nonempty complete Riemannian manifold to a connected Riemannian manifold is a surjective covering map. Lift radial geodesics in a normal ball using completeness; the exponential map at each inverse-image centre maps a tangent ball diffeomorphically onto a sheet. Uniqueness of the geodesic initial-value problem makes these sheets disjoint and exhaustive. Surjectivity follows by lifting piecewise geodesic paths. Conversely a Riemannian covering of a complete target is complete, by lifting complete target geodesics and using the Hopf-Rinow theorem. If the target is disconnected, the first assertion gives a covering only of the union of components met by the map.

A local isometry intertwines the Levi--Civita covariant derivatives. It therefore sends every affinely parametrized geodesic to an affinely parametrized geodesic.

A nonunit Euclidean dilation sends straight-line geodesics to straight-line geodesics but scales their tangent inner products. Preservation of geodesics alone therefore does not imply local isometry.

A Riemannian isometry is a diffeomorphism that preserves the Riemannian metric, and hence lengths, areas, and intrinsic curvature.

For the conethe first fundamental form isThe local change of polar coordinatesturns this into the Euclidean metric $d{R}^2+R^{2}d{\Theta }^2$.

For a circular cone with intrinsic metric $d{\rho }^2+{\lambda }^2{\rho }^{2}d{\theta }^2$, $0<\lambda \le 1$, local development uses plane angle $\varphi =\lambda \theta$. A plane straight segment that avoids the origin lifts to a geodesic. Choosing an angular difference at most $\pi$ gives plane difference at most $\pi \lambda$, so for $\lambda <1$ this constructs a joining geodesic between any two distinct points. Different permitted angle lifts can yield distinct joining geodesics; the missing apex cannot be used to join straight segments through the plane origin.

In a positively oriented surface chart,The coordinate-change Jacobian and the metric determinant transform inversely, so this defines a global area form.

The surface area of a measurable region $U\subseteq S$ is ${\int }_{U}dA$. For a parametrization $X(u,v)$ it is $\int |X_u\times X_v|dudv$.

For an oriented parametrized surface $\mathbf{r}(u,v)$,

The vector area of an oriented surface is the integral of its unit normal vector times its area element. If its oriented boundary is a closed curve $C$, Stokes theorem givesConsequently it depends only on the oriented boundary, not on the spanning surface. For a planar surface it is signed area times a unit normal vector. A current loop has magnetic dipole moment $\mathbf{m}=I\mathbf{S}$; the scalar area of a nonplanar spanning surface is not interchangeable with this vector.