Covering space by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
Basically it is a larger space such that there exists a surjection from the large space onto the smaller space, while still being compatible with the topology of the small space.
We can characterize the cover by how injective the function is. E.g. if two elements of the large space map to each element of the small space, then we have a double cover and so on.
Manifold by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
We map each point and a small enough neighbourhood of it to , so we can talk about the manifold points in terms of coordinates.
Does not require any further structure besides a consistent topological map. Notably, does not require metric nor an addition operation to make a vector space.
Manifolds are cool. Especially differentiable manifolds which we can do calculus on.
A notable example of a Non-Euclidean geometry manifold is the space of generalized coordinates of a Lagrangian. For example, in a problem such as the double pendulum, some of those generalized coordinates could be angles, which wrap around and thus are not euclidean.
Covariant derivative by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
A generalized definition of derivative that works on manifolds.
TODO: how does it maintain a single value even across different coordinate charts?
TODO find a concrete numerical example of doing calculus on a differentiable manifold and visualizing it. Likely start with a boring circle. That would be sweet...
Tangent space by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
TODO what's the point of it.
Bibliography:
Metric (mathematics) by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
A metric is a function that give the distance, i.e. a real number, between any two elements of a space.
A metric may be induced from a norm as shown at: Section "Metric induced by a norm".
TODO examples:
Figure 1.
Hierarchy of topological, metric, normed and inner product spaces
. Source.
Complete metric space by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
In plain English: the space has no visible holes. If you start walking less and less on each step, you always converge to something that also falls in the space.
One notable example where completeness matters: Lebesgue integral of is complete but Riemann isn't.
Inner product by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
Appears to be analogous to the dot product, but also defined for infinite dimensions.
Norm (mathematics) by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
Vs metric:
In a vector space, a metric may be induced from a norm by using subtraction:

Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project

Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
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