Ethan Hibbing

Western Washington University
, Bond Hall 225

Abstract

Distance minimizing curves on Riemann manifolds

A Riemann manifold is a generalization of surfaces on Rn on which we can take derivatives and calculate lengths of curves. We will rebuild the tools necessary to calculate things like inner products, velocity, and acceleration in a more generalized setting. Using these tools, we can then investigate zero acceleration curves called geodesics which acts as generalizations of straight lines on Riemann Manifolds.