Saturday, September 1, 2007

Classification Theorem for Compact Surfaces

So this was actually the "Theorem of the Day" about a month ago, but allow me my delayed public display of math wanking. Get use to it, because at Cambridge I was surrounded with mathematicians and these urges were often released in more...err...natural, consensual ways. Now back on the other side of the puddle, surrounded by engineers, I have to release my math juices all over this wonderful interweb. Taken from W.S. Massey's Algebraic Topology: An Introduction (GTM 56). Only a taste of things to come in 18.904 - Seminar in Topology.

Theorem 5.1 Any compact surface is either homeomorphic to a sphere, or to a connected sum of tori, or to a connected sum of projective planes.

Ahh Man... So pretty. Spend some time in projective space and you might never want to come back to your drab everyday world.

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