Geodesic Hessian formula ($(f\circ \gamma {)}^{\prime \prime }(0)=\mathrm{Hess}f(v,v)$)

For a geodesic $\gamma$ with initial velocity $v$, $(f\circ \gamma {)}^{\prime \prime }(0)=\mathrm{Hess}f(v,v)$, because the covariant acceleration vanishes. Summing over an orthonormal basis of the tangent space gives $\Delta f(p)=-{\sum }_i(f\circ {\gamma }_i{)}^{\prime \prime }(0)$ for the nonnegative Laplace-Beltrami operator.