Mathematics 454, Spring 2007

TuTh 14:55-16:10 Malott 203

Professor Tara Holm
Office: Malott 589
Phone: 607-255-2392
Office Hours:
  • Wednesday 1:00-3:00pm
  • By appointment

If you have any questions, please come by my office, or send me email!!


Topics: We will focus on the geometry of curves and surfaces in Euclidean space.  The fundamental concepts we will explore are curvature and geodesics.  Topics we will cover include tangent bundles, orientability, the first and second fundamental forms, Gaussian and mean curvatures, the Gauss map, geodesics, minimal surfaces, and the Gauss-Bonnet Theorem.  If time permits, we will discuss the basics of Morse theory.

Text:
Andrew Pressley, Elementary Differential Geometry.  You cn buy it from Amazon or the Cornell bookstore.

Syllabus:  Available in PDF.  (Note: corrected %s for final grades!)

TA: Tim Goldberg is the TA for the course. His email address is goldberg(at)math(dot)cornell(dot)edu. His office is in 120 Malott.  He has office hours in 218 Malott on Tuesdays 1-2pm and Wednesdays 10:30-11:30am.



Homework Assignments

The first Problem Set is due on 1 February 2007.
The second Problem Set is due on 8 February 2007.
The third Problem Set is due on 15 February 2007.
The fourth Problem Set is due on 1 March 2007.
The fifth Problem Set is due on 6 March 2007.
The sixth Problem Set is due on 5 April 2007.
The seventh Problem Set is due on 12 April 2007.


Exams

The Midterm (no hints) is due on 15 March 2007. Here is the one with hints
Here is a handout about Final projects.