Basics of Dierential Geometry

March 5, 2014
The membrane is represented as a closed surface in space. The position vector r is a function of two
parameters s and ,
r = r(, s) e
r
+ z(, s) e
z
(1)
Due to axisymmetry, all parameters will be independant of .
r = r(s) e
r
+ z(s) e
z
(2)
The tangent vectors along the s and directions are,
a
s
=
r

= r(s) e

; a

=
r
s
= cos (s) e
r
+ sin (s) e
z
Where, is the tangent angle measured from horizontal.
The elements of the rst fundamental form are given by the inner product of tangent vectors, a

= a

.a

,
a

= (r e

).(r e

) = r
2
; a
ss
= (cos e
r
+ sin e
z
).(cos e
r
+ sin e
z
) = 1 a
s
= a
s
= 0
The reciprocal to any vector a

is dened by relation

a

= a

. The rst fundamental has an inverse

dened by the above relation provided a det a

= 0
a

=
1
r
2
; a
ss
= 1; a
s
= a
s
= 0
The unit outward normal n is dened as,
n =
1
a
a

a
s
= sin e
r
cos e
z
(3)
Now,
a
,
=

(
r

) = r(cos a
s
+ sin n); a
s,s
= (

s
)n; a
s,
= a
,s
=
cos
r
a

; n
,s
= (

s
) a
s
; n
,
=
sin
r
a