Dear Math Students,
I'll be teaching Math 462, differential geometry, next fall. Differential
geometry is a very important area of mathematics with applications both to
other areas of mathematics and in science. For example, the celebrated
solutions of Fermat's Last Theorem in algebra and the Poincare Conjecture
in topology (for which G. Perelman will receive a $1 million Millennium
prize) were obtained in part using methods from differential geometry.
Applications include computer imaging, aspects of biology and chemistry,
and many areas of physics, including relativity.
We will be studying primarily curves and surfaces in space, and so the
prerequisites are mainly linear algebra, calculus of more than one
variable and enough experience to be handle sometimes fairly involved
proofs at the level of, say, Math 445. Despite what some students are led
to believe by the title, the course does not involve differential
equations in any serious way.
Conrad Plaut
Professor, Director of UT Math Honors
Math Department
Aconda Ct. 104
1534 Cumberland Ave.
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-0612
Office: Aconda Ct. 401A
Phone: 865-974-4319
http://web.utk.edu/~cplaut
|