Talk:Closed and exact differential forms

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I would find it clearer to say:

Since d^2 = 0, to be closed is a necessary condition to be exact. Asking whether this is also a sufficient condition is a way of detecting topological information, by differential conditions.

The argument is that it is usually easy to test da=0 and hard to find b with db=a.

Be bold! If you feel it's best to change, change it, by all means. Dysprosia 10:25, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Disagree with merging of this into differential form

This is a nice short article focused on explaining one concept, so it should stay this way. I don't see how this would be made better if part of a bigger article.

What this article needs is an expansion. It neeeds to be made more clear what exactly closedness means, some examples, and a counterexample of a closed form which is not exact.

MarSch, please read Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Mathematics#Math_in_the_dock. The biggest problem of math on Wikipedia is that it is too hard to understand for people who know less than the author of an article. So let us try to make things more accessible, not less. Oleg Alexandrov 16:01, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

Agree with Oleg. Also, this article can be expanded, as it is the doorway to homology and cohomology and harmonic forms and all that. linas 01:05, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Error of sign?

Isn't there an error of sign in the expression for dα where α is a one form on the plane? (anonymous) 11:26, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

Different authors have different sign conventions; but you are right, it it disagrees with the convention used in exterior derivative. linas 23:52, 7 October 2005 (UTC)