# Computing $\chi(\mathbb{C}\mathrm{P}^2)$ using differential topology
I am trying to compute $\chi(\mathbb{C}\mathrm{P}^2)$ using only elementary techniques from differential topology and this is proving to be trickier than I thought. I am aware of the usual proof for this result, which uses the cellular decomposition of $\mathbb{C}\mathrm{P}^2$ to get $\chi(\mathbb{C}\mathrm{P}^2) = 3$, but I would like to find a proof of this result that relies on concepts like indices of isolated zeros on a vector field. So for the purposes of this question, I would like to utilize the following definition of the Euler characteristic: For a closed orientable manifold $M$ we define $\chi(M) = \sum_i \mathrm{Ind}_{d_i} \mathrm{v}$ where $\mathrm{v}$ is a vector field on $M$ with isolated zeros.
In my first attempt at this problem I thought about finding a vector field on $\tilde{\mathrm{v}}$ on $S^5$, and then using the identification $\mathbb{C}\mathrm{P}^2 \cong S^5/\mathrm{U}(1)$, seeing if $\tilde{\mathrm{v}}$ descended to a vector field on $\mathbb{C}\mathrm{P}^2$ with isolated zeros that lent itself to computing the Euler characteristic. I had difficulty making this work out, so I am unsure if this is a good approach to tackling the problem. Any insights?