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In differential geometry, the first fundamental form is the inner product on the tangent space of a surface in three-dimensional Euclidean space which is induced canonically from the dot product of R³. It permits the calculation of curvature and metric properties of a surface such as length and area in a manner consistent with the ambient space. The first fundamental form is denoted by the Roman numeral I,

$\!\mathrm{I}(x,y)= \langle x,y \rangle.$

Let X(u, v) be a parametric surface. Then the inner product of two tangent vectors is

$\begin{align} & {} \quad \mathrm{I}(aX_u+bX_v,cX_u+dX_v) \\ & = ac \langle X_u,X_u \rangle + (ad+bc) \langle X_u,X_v \rangle + bd \langle X_v,X_v \rangle \\ & = Eac + F(ad+bc) + Gbd, \end{align}$

where E, F, and G are the coefficients of the first fundamental form.

The first fundamental form may be represented as a symmetric matrix.

$\!\mathrm{I}(x,y) = x^T \begin{pmatrix} E & F \\ F & G \end{pmatrix}y$

1 Further notation
2 Calculating lengths and areas
- 2.1 Example
  - 2.1.1 Length of a curve on the sphere
  - 2.1.2 Area of a region on the sphere
3 Gaussian curvature
4 See also
5 External links

Further notation [edit]

When the first fundamental form is written with only one argument, it denotes the inner product of that vector with itself.

$\!\mathrm{I}(v)= \langle v,v \rangle = |v|^2$

The first fundamental form is often written in the modern notation of the metric tensor. The coefficients may then be written as $g_{ij}$ :

$\left(g_{ij}\right) = \begin{pmatrix}g_{11} & g_{12} \\g_{21} & g_{22}\end{pmatrix} =\begin{pmatrix}E & F \\F & G\end{pmatrix}$

The components of this tensor are calculated as the scalar product of tangent vectors X₁ and X₂:

$g_{ij} = X_i \cdot X_j$

for i, j = 1, 2. See example below.

Calculating lengths and areas [edit]

The first fundamental form completely describes the metric properties of a surface. Thus, it enables one to calculate the lengths of curves on the surface and the areas of regions on the surface. The line element ds may be expressed in terms of the coefficients of the first fundamental form as

$ds^2 = Edu^2+2Fdudv+Gdv^2 \,$ .

The classical area element given by $dA = |X_u \times X_v| \ du\, dv$ can be expressed in terms of the first fundamental form with the assistance of Lagrange's identity,

$dA = |X_u \times X_v| \ du\, dv= \sqrt{ \langle X_u,X_u \rangle \langle X_v,X_v \rangle - \langle X_u,X_v \rangle^2 } \ du\, dv = \sqrt{EG-F^2} \, du\, dv.$

Example [edit]

The unit sphere in R³ may be parametrized as

$X(u,v) = \begin{pmatrix} \cos u \sin v \\ \sin u \sin v \\ \cos v \end{pmatrix},\ (u,v) \in [0,2\pi) \times [0,\pi).$

Differentiating $X(u,v)$ with respect to u and v yields

$X_u = \begin{pmatrix} -\sin u \sin v \\ \cos u \sin v \\ 0 \end{pmatrix},\ X_v = \begin{pmatrix} \cos u \cos v \\ \sin u \cos v \\ -\sin v \end{pmatrix}.$

The coefficients of the first fundamental form may be found by taking the dot product of the partial derivatives.

$E = X_u \cdot X_u = \sin^2 v$

$F = X_u \cdot X_v = 0$

$G = X_v \cdot X_v = 1$

Length of a curve on the sphere [edit]

The equator of the sphere is a parametrized curve given by $(u(t),v(t))=(t,\frac{\pi}{2})$ with t ranging from 0 to $2\pi$ . The line element may be used to calculate the length of this curve.

$\int_0^{2\pi} \sqrt{ E\left(\frac{du}{dt}\right)^2 + 2F\frac{du}{dt}\frac{dv}{dt} + G\left(\frac{dv}{dt}\right)^2 } \,dt = \int_0^{2\pi} \sin v \,dt = 2\pi \sin \frac{\pi}{2} = 2\pi$

Area of a region on the sphere [edit]

The area element may be used to calculate the area of the sphere.

$\int_0^{\pi} \int_0^{2\pi} \sqrt{ EG-F^2 } \ du\, dv = \int_0^{\pi} \int_0^{2\pi} \sin v \, du\, dv = 2\pi \left[-\cos v\right]_0^{\pi} = 4\pi$

Gaussian curvature [edit]

The Gaussian curvature of a surface is given by

$K = \frac{\det \mathit{II}}{\det I} = \frac{ LN-M^2}{EG-F^2 },$

where L, M, and N are the coefficients of the second fundamental form.

Theorema egregium of Gauss states that the Gaussian curvature of a surface can be expressed solely in terms of the first fundamental form and its derivatives, so that K is in fact an intrinsic invariant of the surface. An explicit expression for the Gaussian curvature in terms of the first fundamental form is provided by the Brioschi formula.

External links [edit]

v t e Various notions of curvature defined in differential geometry

Differential geometry of curves	Curvature Torsion of a curve Frenet–Serret formulas Radius of curvature (applications) Affine curvature Total curvature

Differential geometry of surfaces	Principal curvatures Gaussian curvature Mean curvature Darboux frame Gauss–Codazzi equations First fundamental form Second fundamental form

Riemannian geometry	Curvature of Riemannian manifolds Riemann curvature tensor Ricci curvature Scalar curvature Sectional curvature

Curvature of connections	Curvature form Torsion tensor Cocurvature Holonomy

Original courtesy of Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_fundamental_form — Please support Wikipedia.
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First fundamental form

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