Definition:Riemannian Metric

Definition
Consider a smooth manifold $\mathcal M$ on the real space $\R^n$.

A Riemannian metric on $\mathcal M$ is a metric $\mathrm d s$ between nearby points $\left({x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_n}\right)$ and $\left({x_1 + \mathrm d x_1, x_2 + \mathrm d x_2, \ldots, x_n + \mathrm d x_n}\right)$ by means of the quadratic differential form:
 * $\displaystyle \mathrm d s^2 = \sum_{i, j \mathop = 1}^n g_{i j} \, \mathrm d x_i \, \mathrm d x_j$

where each $g_{i j}$ is a suitable real-valued function of $x_1, \ldots, x_n$.

Different instances of $g_{i j}$ define different Riemannian geometries on the manifold under discussion.

A manifold with such a Riemannian metric applied is known as a Riemannian manifold.