Paper 3, Section II, G

Geometry
Part IB, 2018

Let UU be an open subset of the plane R2\mathbb{R}^{2}, and let σ:US\sigma: U \rightarrow S be a smooth parametrization of a surface SS. A coordinate curve is an arc either of the form

αv0(t)=σ(t,v0)\alpha_{v_{0}}(t)=\sigma\left(t, v_{0}\right)

for some constant v0v_{0} and t[u1,u2]t \in\left[u_{1}, u_{2}\right], or of the form

βu0(t)=σ(u0,t)\beta_{u_{0}}(t)=\sigma\left(u_{0}, t\right)

for some constant u0u_{0} and t[v1,v2]t \in\left[v_{1}, v_{2}\right]. A coordinate rectangle is a rectangle in SS whose sides are coordinate curves.

Prove that all coordinate rectangles in SS have opposite sides of the same length if and only if Ev=Gu=0\frac{\partial E}{\partial v}=\frac{\partial G}{\partial u}=0 at all points of SS, where EE and GG are the usual components of the first fundamental form, and (u,v)(u, v) are coordinates in UU.