Timeline for Introductory text on Riemannian geometry
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
5 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 28, 2010 at 1:24 | comment | added | The Mathemagician | Yes,it does use a lot of differential forms and without a considerable background in algebra (at the very least,a strong algebra course at the undergraduate level a la Herstien or Artin),this is going to be a big hurdle to overcome.A much gentler and geometric introduction to forms-as well as a terrific first course on DG-is provided by the second edition of Barrett O'Niel's ELEMENTARY DIFFERENTIAL GEOMETRY. Indeed-a year long course on curve and surface theory based on O'Niell would make Chern's notes MUCH easier to absorb. | |
| Mar 27, 2010 at 22:28 | comment | added | Ilya Grigoriev | @Andrew: I agree that the lack of exercises is a downside. Regarding the level, it certainly uses a lot of differential forms. This seemed quite enlightening to me (concerning the forms more than about the geometry), but if one fears them strongly enough (as I certainly have at some point) then it could be a problem. | |
| Mar 27, 2010 at 22:27 | history | edited | Ilya Grigoriev | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
added 390 characters in body
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| Mar 27, 2010 at 21:39 | comment | added | The Mathemagician | Well,ANY version of Chern's notes are well worth having,Ilya-but they are very concise,advanced (you really need a year of topology and algebra at the graduate level to fully understand them) and they have the HUGE down side of no exercises.If someone could supply exercise sets-preferably one of Chern's former students-the book would be much more useable as a text.To be honest,I think any reader that tries to learn DG from them without a good course in classical curve/surface theory is going to be VERY lost. | |
| Mar 27, 2010 at 19:11 | history | answered | Ilya Grigoriev | CC BY-SA 2.5 |