- #1
Frank Castle
- 580
- 23
I'm fairly new to differential geometry (learning with a view to understanding general relativity at a deeper level) and hoping I can clear up some questions I have about coordinate charts on manifolds.
Is the reason why one can't construct global coordinate charts on manifolds in general because the topology of a given coordinate chart is that of Euclidean space (i.e. ##\mathbb{R}^{n}## with the standard topology), whereas, in general the global topology of the manifold will be much more complex?! If this is the case, can one only construct a global coordinate chart on a manifold if its global topology is the standard Euclidean topology (does Minkowski spacetime have the standard Euclidean topology with a Minkowski geometry)?!
Is the reason why one can't construct global coordinate charts on manifolds in general because the topology of a given coordinate chart is that of Euclidean space (i.e. ##\mathbb{R}^{n}## with the standard topology), whereas, in general the global topology of the manifold will be much more complex?! If this is the case, can one only construct a global coordinate chart on a manifold if its global topology is the standard Euclidean topology (does Minkowski spacetime have the standard Euclidean topology with a Minkowski geometry)?!