From Foucault's Pendulum to the Gauss--Bonnet Theorem

Abstract

We present a self-contained proof of the Gauss-Bonnet theorem for two-dimensional surfaces embedded in $R^3$ using just classical vector calculus. The exposition should be accessible to advanced undergraduate and non-expert graduate students. It may be viewed as an illustration and exercise in multivariate calculus and a motivation to go deeper into the fields of geometry and topology.

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