The aim of this course is to understand Einsteins equations for the curvature of the

universe and to see how this applies to the universe as a whole. Before we do this, we have
to understand what curvature is and how it can be discussed in a mathematical way; this
will take up a large part of the course.

0.1

Measuring distance: metrics

We begin by thinking about how we measure distance. For convenience we start with two
dimensions and imagine a path between two points a and b.

a
In order to work out the distance along the path, we integrate
Z
s = ds

(1)

where s is the total distance and ds is the length of an infinitessimal part of the path. It
is useful to think of the path as being approximated by small line segments

s3

s2
s1
a
the integral is approximately the sum of the lengths of these segments, so
s s1 + s2 + s3
1

(2)

Now, here, we have approximated the curve with only three line segments and so it is a
poor approximation, using more segments would give a better approximation

a
The integral should be thought of as the limit of taking more and more smaller and smaller
line segments, in the limit the approximation becomes exact. In the same way ds should
be thought of as an infinitessimally short line segment.
Now, in practical calculations, it is normal to have coordinates for the points and to
express ds in terms of these coordinates. The familiar of coordinate systems is Cartesian
coordinate system where a point (x, y) say is x along in the horizontal direction and y up
in the vertical direction. Now say two points a and b are very close together, so a has
coodinates (x, y) and b has coordinates (x + dx, y + dy) where dx means a small change in
x and dy means a small chance in y, then
ds2 = dx2 + dy 2

(3)

and this follows from the Pythagorous theorem:

ds

dy

dx

Another coordinate system is polar coordinates in which a point is labelled by how far it
is from the origin and the angle a line to point makes with the x-axis. In polar coordinates
two nearby points with coordinates (r, ) and (r + dr, + d) have infinitessimal seperation
ds2 = dr 2 + r 2 d 2
2

(4)