26.2
CURVES
AND
TANGENT
VECTORS
771
arrow, say I km in length, connecting
our
present position to the next point I km
away. As we move from New York to Beijing, going westward, the tip of the arrow
keeps changing direction. Its direction in New York is slightly different from its
direction in Chicago.
InSan Francisco the direction is changed even more, and
by the time we reach Beijing, the tip
of
the arrow will be almost opposite to its
original direction.
The reason for such a changing arrow is,
of
course, the curvature of the manic
fold. We can minimize this curvature effect
if
we do not go too far from New York.
If
we stay close to New York, the surface
of
the earth appears flat, and we can draw
arrows between points. The closer the two points, the better the approximation
to flatness. Clearly, the concept
of
a vector is a local concept, and the process
of
constructing a vectoris a limiting process.
The limiting process in the globe example entailed the notions of "closeness."
Such a notion requires the concept
of
distance, which is natural for a globe but
not necessary for a general manifold. For most manifolds it is possible
to define
a metric that gives the "distance" between two points of the manifold. However,
the concept of a vector is too general to require such an elaborate stmcture as a
metric. The abstractusefulness of a metric is a result
of
its real-valucdness: given
two points PI and
P2,the distance betweenthem,
d(Pj,
P2), is a nonnegative real
number. Thus, distances between different points can be compared.
We have already defined two concepts for manifolds (more basic than the
concept of a metric) that together can replace the concept of a metric in defining
a vector as a limit. These are the concepts
of
(real-valued) functions and curves.
Letus see how functions andcurvescanreplacemetries.
Let y : [a, b] --> M be a curve in the manifold M.
Let
P E M be a point
of
M that lies on y such that
y(c)
= P for some c E [a, b].
Let
f E FOO(P).
Restrict f to the neighboringpointsof P that lie on y. Then the compositefunction
f 0 y : R --> R is a real-valued function on R.
We can compare values
of
f 0 y for various real numbers close to
c-as
in
calculus.
If
U E [a, b] denotes" the variable, then f 0
y(u)
=
f(y(u))
gives the
value
of
f 0 y at various
u's.
In particular, the difference
!'1(f
0
y)
sa
f(y(u»
-
f(y(c))
is a measure of how close the point
y(u)
E M is to P. Going one step
further, we define
d(~:
y)
I.=c
=
Y-Tc
f(Y(U)~
=
:(y(C))
,
(26.2)
the usual derivative of an ordinaryfunction of one variable. However, this derivative
depends on
y and on the point P. The function f is merely a test function. We
could choose any other function to test how things change with movement along
y.
Whatis important is not whichfunction we choose, but how the curve y causes
it to change with movement along
y away from P. This change is determined by
4Weusuallyuse u ort to denotethe(real)
argument
of the mapy : [a, b] --+ M.