Simply Connected Space

Simply Connected Space

In topology, a topological space is called simply connected (or 1-connected) if it is path-connected and every path between two points can be continuously transformed, staying within the space, into any other path while preserving the two endpoints in question (see below for an informal discussion).

If a space is not simply connected, it is convenient to measure the extent to which it fails to be simply connected; this is done by the fundamental group. Intuitively, the fundamental group measures how the holes behave on a space; if there are no holes, the fundamental group is trivial — equivalently, the space is simply connected.

Read more about Simply Connected Space:  Informal Discussion, Formal Definition and Equivalent Formulations, Examples, Properties

Famous quotes containing the words simply, connected and/or space:

    Why should I go to England with her? Because you bid me, or because she wishes it,—or simply because England is the most damnable, Puritanical, God-forgotten, and stupid country on the face of the globe?
    Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)

    I like to see a home like this, a home connected with people’s thoughts and work, things they love.
    Dewitt Bodeen (1908–1988)

    Though seas and land be ‘twixt us both,
    Our faith and troth,
    Like separated souls,
    All time and space controls:
    Above the highest sphere we meet
    Unseen, unknown, and greet as angels greet.
    Richard Lovelace (1618–1658)