VISUALIZING EXTERIOR CALCULUS

GREGORY BIXLER

Abstract. Exterior calculus, broadly, is the structure of differential forms.

These are usually presented algebraically, or as computational tools to simplify
Stokes’ Theorem. But geometric objects like forms should be visualized! Here,
I present visualizations of forms that attempt to capture their geometry.

Contents
Introduction 1
1. Exterior algebra 2
1.1. Vectors and dual vectors 2
1.2. The wedge of two vectors 3
1.3. Defining the exterior algebra 4
1.4. The wedge of two dual vectors 5
1.5. R3 has no mixed wedges 6
1.6. Interior multiplication 7
2. Integration 8
2.1. Differential forms 9
2.2. Visualizing differential forms 9
2.3. Integrating differential forms over manifolds 9
3. Differentiation 11
3.1. Exterior Derivative 11
3.2. Visualizing the exterior derivative 13
3.3. Closed and exact forms 14
3.4. Future work: Lie derivative 15
Acknowledgments 16
References 16

Introduction
What’s the natural way to integrate over a smooth manifold? Well, a k-dimensional
manifold is (locally) parametrized by k coordinate functions. At each point we get
k tangent vectors, which together form an infinitesimal k-dimensional volume ele-
ment. And how should we measure this element? It seems reasonable to ask for a
function f taking k vectors, so that
• f is linear in each vector
• f is zero for degenerate elements (i.e. when vectors are linearly dependent)
• f is smooth
These are the properties of a differential form.
1
2 GREGORY BIXLER

Introducing structure to a manifold usually follows a certain pattern:

• Create it in Rn . We define the exterior algebra in section 1.
• Introduce it locally in coordinate neighborhoods. We devote sections 2 and
3 to this.
• Understand it globally by patching together the coordinate neighborhoods.
This is beyond the scope of this paper, except for a few remarks at the end
of section 3.

1. Exterior algebra
Given a vector space V , we can construct its exterior algebra2 Λ(V ), a se-
1

quence of vector spaces Λk (V ) which represent k-dimensional volume elements.We

measure these volume elements via the dual space Λk (V )∨ . This generalizes R the
line integrals seen in a typical introductory multivariable calculus class: F · dr.
Here, “F ·” is a dual vector measuring the line element dr.
We face a double challenge: to see the exterior algebra of dual vectors. We’ll
tackle this by first visualizing dual vectors, and then visualizing the exterior algebra
of (regular) vectors and dual vectors in tandem.

1.1. Vectors and dual vectors. Visually, a vector in Rn is an arrow whose tail
is at the origin. It’s less clear how to visualize dual vectors. Since there is an
isomorphism V ∨ ∼ = V , why not simply visualize V ∨ as V itself? The main problem
with this approach is that it transforms the wrong way under a change of basis.
For example, suppose we’re initially measuring in feet and switch to inches: if our
old basis is {e1 , . . . , en }, then our new basis is {e1 /12, . . . , en /12}. Vectors appear
to get 12 times bigger. But for any T ∈ V ∨ and v ∈ V , the value of T (v) is
independent of basis, so T must shrink by a factor of 12, not grow.
Instead, in R1 , view a dual vector a collection of “tick marks” on the axis:

In Rn , we can do the same, with a caveat. We must choose an axis with tick
marks, and project the vector into this axis.

1 In this paper, all vector spaces are finite-dimensional.

2 The notation “Λ” seems to be a corruption of the symbol ∧, the exterior/wedge product.
V
Some authors write (V ) instead.
 VISUALIZING EXTERIOR CALCULUS 3

This doesn’t really measure the vector: it measures the projection. We can
measure vectors more directly by orthogonally extending the tick marks. This
yields a series of lines in R2 , planes in R3 , and hyperplanes in general.

Formally, we can think of this geometric representation of a dual vector T as the

set of pre-images T −1 (n) of integers n.

1.2. The wedge of two vectors. Allow me to start with a historical note. In
R3 , in addition to the vector space operations of addition and scaling, we have the
dot product and cross product. We compute the dot product u · v by projecting u
along v and then multiplying their signed lengths. We compute the cross product
u × v by first forming the parallelogram P spanned by u and v and then setting the
length of u × v to be the area of P , in the direction of the (oriented) normal to P .
These operations were not always called “dot product” and “cross product”.
Hermann Grassman essentially invented linear algebra in his 1844 book Die lineale
Ausdehnungslehre ([3]), including the exterior algebra. In the preface, he calls these
the “interior product”3 and “exterior product,” respectively. He reasons that the
dot product takes its maximum value when one vector is inside the span of the
other, while the cross product is only nonzero if each vector is outside the span of
the other.
3 This is not the same as the interior multiplication we define later! Also, this is probably
where the term “inner product” comes from.
4 GREGORY BIXLER

Anyways, back to describing multi-dimensional volume. The cross product is

essentially the right idea—it’s no accident that it shows up whenever we compute
a surface integral. To generalize it, we need to fix a quirk of the cross product: it
describes a 2-dimensional area as a 1-dimensional vector. The fix is to describe the
result as a “2-dimensional vector”!4
We implement this fix by defining a new operation, the wedge product (or
exterior product) u ∧ v of vectors u and v. We want it to satisfy many of the
same properties as the cross product:
• (u1 + u2 ) ∧ v = u1 ∧ v + u2 ∧ v
• c(u ∧ v) = (cu) ∧ v = u ∧ (cv)
• u ∧ v = −(v ∧ u), so in particular, v ∧ v = 0

1.3. Defining the exterior algebra. The wedge product looks essentially like
the tensor product, but with some extra relations (in the third bullet above). So,
it should seem natural to define the space of 2-vectors, Λ2 (V ), as a quotient of the
tensor power V ⊗ V . Before we do this, recall a little trick, which shows that the
relations v ∧ v = 0 imply u ∧ v = −v ∧ u.
0 = (u + v) ∧ (u + v) = u ∧ u + u ∧ v + v ∧ u + v ∧ v = u ∧ v + v ∧ u.
We now define
V ⊗V
Λ2 (V ) =,
I
where I is the subspace of V ⊗ V generated by the tensors v ⊗ v. We can generalize
this definition to higher powers:
Definition 1.1. Let V be a vector space, and k a nonnegative integer. Then
V ⊗k
Λk (V ) = ,
Ik
where Ik is the subspace of V ⊗k generated by tensors v1 ⊗ · · · ⊗ vk , where at least
one of the vi is repeated. (Or equivalently, where the vi are linearly dependent.)
Recall that, if {e1 , . . . , en } is a basis for V , then the elements
e I = e i1 ∧ · · · ∧ e ik
form a basis for Λk (V ). Here, I ranges over all strictly increasing k-tuples
in
{1, . . . , n}. The dimension of Λk (V ) is the number of such tuples, which is nk .
Finally, treating the exterior algebra as a whole makes the definition even simpler:
Let T (V ) be the tensor algebra for V . Then
Λ(V ) = T (V )/I,
where I is the ideal generated by the tensors v ⊗ v.5

4 Perhaps I’m being unfair to the cross product here. It really is remarkable that in R3 , we
can describe area using vectors, and the cross product is particularly useful since it spits out an
object of the same type as its inputs.
5 The ideal I is different from the subspace I from the definition of Λ2 (V ), since now we also
use ⊗ when generating I.
 VISUALIZING EXTERIOR CALCULUS 5

1.4. The wedge of two dual vectors. We’ve seen that the wedge of two vectors
looks like a stretchy, oriented parallelogram. How about the wedge of two dual
vectors? First, recall the usual definition of 2-forms.

Proposition 1.2. Let V be a finite-dimensional vector space. Then

Λ2 (V ∨ ) = W,

where W is the space of bilinear, alternating6 functions V × V → R.

Let’s start simply, in R2 . Here, we have a way to measure oriented parallelo-

grams: the determinant. Indeed, the function

 

(u, v) 7→ det u v

is bilinear and alternating. The determinant in R2 is a particular 2-form; recall

that in general, the determinant detn in Rn is equal to e∨ ∨
 ∨
1 ∧ · · · ∧ en , where ej
is the usual basis for (Rn )∨ .
Here’s how we can visualize the determinant: Place a dot at each lattice point in
the plane. To approximate det(u ∧ v), draw the parallelogram u ∧ v and count how
many dots are inside. Keep track of orientations with a small circle around each
dot. For example, in the below figure, det(u1 ∧ u2 ) ≈ 3 and det(v1 ∧ v2 ) ≈ −4.

From now on, I’ll mostly ignore orientations. To rescale the determinant, move
the dots closer together or farther apart, reversing the circles if the scalar is negative.
Due to the bilinearity of the determinant, it doesn’t matter how you choose to move
the dots.

6 A function is alternating if its sign flips when swapping any two of its arguments.
6 GREGORY BIXLER

In R3 , we can get a 2-form by first choosing a plane and placing dots, projecting
the 2-vector onto the plane, and counting the dots in the projection. Like with
dual vectors, we can un-project the dots, which gives us a collection of evenly
spaced lines.

To summarize: we can geometrically represent the wedge of two dual vectors

α ∧ β as α−1 (Z) ∩ β −1 (Z). In general, we represent a (pure) k-form ω1 ∧ · · · ∧ ωk as
ω1−1 (Z) ∩ · · · ∩ ωk−1 (Z).
1.5. R3 has no mixed wedges. There’s an important distinction between pure
and mixed tensors. Pure tensors are those that can be written as a single term
v1 ⊗ · · · ⊗ vk , whereas mixed tensors cannot. For example, while you can write
u1 ⊗ v1 + u1 ⊗ v2 + u2 ⊗ v1 + u2 ⊗ v2 = (u1 + u2 ) ⊗ (v1 + v2 ),
you typically cannot find vectors a and b so that
u1 ⊗ v1 + u2 ⊗ v2 = a ⊗ b.
As long as the dimensions of V and W are at least 2, we can pick linearly indepen-
dent vectors u1 , u2 ∈ U and v1 , v2 ∈ V . Then, U ⊗ V will have mixed tensors, such
as u1 ⊗ v1 + u2 ⊗ v2 . The same, however, is not always true for Λk (V ).
 VISUALIZING EXTERIOR CALCULUS 7

Proposition 1.3. Let V have dimension n. Then Λk (V ) has mixed wedges if and
only if 1 < k < n − 1.
This may explain why differential forms developed much later than classical
multivariable calculus. In three or fewer dimensions, we never need to worry about
mixed wedges, so we can integrate over lines and surfaces using regular vectors.
Even in higher dimensions, we can integrate over curves and hypersurfaces with im-
punity. We only needed forms when we wanted to be able to integrate 2-dimensional
surfaces in R4 , for example.
Proof sketch of (⇐). Consider the function7 J : V k → Λk (V ) given by
J(v1 , . . . , vk ) = v1 ∧ · · · ∧ vk .
k
Then Λ (V ) has mixed tensors if and only if J is not surjective.
The function J is not linear, but it is smooth. (Λk (V ) is a smooth manifold
since it is a finite-dimensional real vector space.) The derivative of J is a nk × nk

matrix8, which has the form

DJ = A | −A | · · · | (−1)k+1 A
 

because the wedge product is alternating. Since A is a nk × n matrix,

rank(DJ) = rank(A) ≤ n.
When 1 < k < n − 1, we have rank(DJ) ≤ n < nk , so every point of V k is a

critical point. Hence, by Sard’s theorem, J cannot be surjective. 

Proof sketch of (⇒). The space Λn (V ) has dimension 1, so all wedges are parallel
to some pure wedge, and are hence pure. When k = 1, the space Λk (V ) is just V
itself and J is the identity map.
Let P be the set of pure (n−1)-wedges. We show that P is closed under addition.
There is an isomorphism ⊥ : P → V , given by taking the normal vector, scaled by
volume. (In R3 , ⊥ maps u ∧ v to u × v.) Though many parallelepipeds can have the
same normal vector, they’re all equivalent when considered as multivectors, so ⊥ is
injective. Add pure wedges by adding their normal vectors and applying ⊥−1 . 
1.6. Interior multiplication. Instead of thinking of a k-form as a linear function
Λk (V ) → R, we may think of it as an alternating k-linear function V k → R.
(In other words, Λk (V ∨ ) ∼= Λk (V )∨ .) Hence, we can define an operation ι : V ×
Λk (V ∨ ) → Λk−1 (V ∨ ) by plugging a specified vector v into the first argument of a
form:
ιv ω = ω(v, −).
Here, I’m omitting the free variables: the above definition means
(ιv (ω))(v1 , . . . , vk−1 ) = ω(v, v1 , . . . , vk−1 ).
We call ι interior multiplication.9
7 I chose J for join, since J combines vectors. The more obvious choice, W for wedge, could
be confused for another vector space.
8 Here, I’m picking a basis for V and using the corresponding basis for Λk (V ).
9 The operation ι has many names: interior product, interior derivative, interior multiplication,
contraction, insertion, and probably several more. It is “interior” because it generalizes the inner
product: a 1-form ω can be represented via ω = a· for some vector a, so
ιv ω = ω(v) = a · v.
8 GREGORY BIXLER

We visualize interior multiplication as follows: From a k-form ω, a density of

(n − k)-dimensional spaces, we obtain a (k − 1) form ιx ω of (n − k + 1)-dimensional
spaces by extending the spaces along direction x and rescaling properly.

In the above illustration, “Π” is the parallelepiped that we’re evaluating ω on.
Here’s the reasoning behind this visualization. Consider a pure k-form ω in Rn
and a vector v. (We restrict to pure forms since they are easier to visualize.) There
are two cases:
• Suppose ιv ω is not identically zero. Then we can find ω2 , . . . , ωk so that

ω = ω1 ∧ · · · ∧ ωk ,
1
where ω1 is the dual vector to v (here, I mean ω1 (w) = kvk2
v · w). Now,
we have
ιv ω = ω2 ∧ · · · ∧ ωk .
Then ω is represented visually by

ω1−1 (Z) ∩ ω2−1 (Z) ∩ · · · ∩ ωk−1 (Z) ,

| {z }
visual representation of ιv ω

so we visually get from ω to ιv ω by “un-intersecting” with ω1−1 (Z). In other

words, take each subspace making up the density of ω and span it with v.
• If ιv ω is identically zero, we cheat a little: v is already “in” ω, so ιv ω looks
the same as ω. Now, ιv ω is being considered as a (k − 1)-form, but has
(n − k)-planes instead of (n − k + 1)-planes, so is degenerate.

2. Integration
We now understand multivectors and exterior forms in Euclidean space, so we
can let them vary and do calculus to them. In this section, we describe how to put
exterior algebra on manifolds, and how to integrate over manifolds.

The reason ι is sometimes called a “derivative” is that it is an anti-derivation; in other words,

if ω is a k-form, then
ιv (ω ∧ η) = ιv (ω) ∧ η + (−1)k ω ∧ (ιv η).
 VISUALIZING EXTERIOR CALCULUS 9

2.1. Differential forms. A differential k-form ω associates to each point p in a

smooth manifold M an exterior k-form ωp ∈ Λk (Tp M ), so that ω “varies smoothly”.
What does it mean to vary smoothly?
In open submanifolds of Rn , we can write ωp uniquely as
X
ωp = aI (p) dxI ,
I inc

Then, “varying smoothly” means the functions aI (p) are smooth. The key here
is that open submanifolds of Rn have a global coordinate chart, so the dxI make
sense everywhere. To make sense of varying smoothly on other smooth manifolds,
we need the notion of a vector bundle, specifically the k-th exterior bundle. For
details about this construction, see [4, p. 359].
The space of all differential k-forms on a manifold is often denoted Ωk (M ). One
mnemonic is that the shape “Ω” is a smoothed-out version of the shape “Λ”.

2.2. Visualizing differential forms. We visualize differential forms like how we

visualize vector fields. To visualize vector fields, we pick several points in M . At
each point p, draw the vector corresponding to p, using p as the origin. To visualize
differential forms, just replace “draw the vector” with “draw the exterior form”.
For example, below is the differential form ω = dx + xy dy.

2.3. Integrating differential forms over manifolds. We rigorously define the

integral of a differential form as follows:
(1) If ω is a differential n-form in Rn , we know ω = a(x) det for some smooth
function a : Rn → R. We then define
Z Z
ω= a,
K K
n
where K ⊂ R is compact, and the RHS is the usual Riemann integral.
(2) If ω is a differential k-form in a n-dimensional manifold M , and K is a com-
pact set contained inside a coordinate neighborhood g(U ) with parametriza-
tion g : U → M , then we pull back ω to a differential form g ∗ ω over U
and define Z Z
ω= g ∗ ω,
K g −1 (K)

where the RHS integral was defined in the first step.

10 GREGORY BIXLER

(3) Integrating over a noncompact set A is fairly technical, and involves par-
titions of unity. Essentially, this involves breaking A into many compact
sets Ki , possibly with overlap, and then integrating over each Ki while
accounting for the overlap.

Pullback looks like projecting the linear spaces in ω into the tangent space to M ,
and then sending it backwards to U via g.

While pullback is crucial to defining these integrals, we can ignore it when vi-
sualizing them. Visually, this is how we integrate a differential n-form ω over a
n-dimensional manifold M :

(1) Break M into tiny n-dimensional pieces Ki

(2) Approximate each Ki with a tangent n-vector vi with proper orientation
(3) In each Ki , approximate ω with an exterior n-form ωi
(4) Evaluate ωi (vi ), and add them all up

We can take a shortcut. Since the Ki are tiny, they are almost identical to the vi .
So, we just need to give an orientation to each Ki and evaluate “ωi (Ki )”, in the
same way we would visually evaluate ωi (vi ): by counting how many pieces of ωi
pass through Ki . The image below shows the process with this shortcut.
 VISUALIZING EXTERIOR CALCULUS 11

In some cases, we can streamline the visualization even more. For example, let
f : R2 → R be smooth, and consider its gradient form ω ∈ Ω1 (R2 ), defined as10
ωp (v) = v · (gradf )(p),
where gradf is the gradient of f . In this case, we can (imprecisely) describe ω as
a linear approximation to the level sets f −1 (Z).

Now, to integrate ω over a curve c, we can simply

R see how many times c passes
through the level sets of f . In the below figure, c ω ≈ (−3) + 5 = 2.

3. Differentiation
In single-variable calculus, there is essentially one derivative you can define—
you can interpret the derivative of a function in many ways, but each yields the
same object. However, in exterior calculus, some of those interpretations diverge,
giving different mathematical objects. In this section, we describe the main one:
the exterior derivative.

3.1. Exterior Derivative. We can define the derivative of a function f : R → R

via the fundamental theorem of calculus
Z b
f (b) − f (a) = f 0 (x) dx .
a

Pick some x ∈ R. When the interval [a, b] is small, we can approximate

Z b
f 0 (x) dx ≈ (b − a)f 0 (x),
a

10 The form ω is actually the exterior derivative of f , which we’ll define later. This explains
why you need a Riemannian metric to define a gradient vector field: the gradient is essentially a
1-form, and you need an inner product for the isomorphism V ∼ = V ∨.
12 GREGORY BIXLER

so
f (b) − f (a)
f 0 (x) ≈ .
b−a
This is essentially the same as the difference quotient. However, the similarity ends
when we step up in dimension.
Now, we can think of flux and divergence. Let F be a smooth vector field in
R3 , and B be a closed unit ball centered at p with boundary S. The divergence
theorem states Z Z
flux of F over S = divF.
S B
When the ball B is small, we can approximate
Z
1
divF ≈ flux of F over S
volB S
and, in fact, could define divergence as
Z
1
divF = lim (flux of F over S).
→0 vol(B) S

We can interpret the fundamental theorem of calculus as a “divergence theorem”

by thinking of f (b) as the amount of f leaving [a, b] at b, and −f (a) as the amount
of f leaving [a, b] at a. The negative sign indicates that at a, f leaves to the left.
Using this flux-and-divergence interpretation of the derivative for inspiration, we
can define the exterior derivative. (This discussion and definition was adapted from
[1, p. 188].)
Definition 3.1. Let ω be a k-form, and let v1 , . . . , vk+1 be vectors. For all  > 0,
let Π be the (oriented) parallelepiped spanned by the vectors v1 , . . . , vk+1 . The
exterior derivative of ω, denoted dω, is defined by
Z
1
dω (v1 , . . . , vk+1 ) = lim ω.
→0 vol(Π) ∂(Π)

In other words, dω is defined to make the equation

Z Z
dω = ω
Π ∂Π
true for tiny parallelepipeds Π. But we use tiny parallelepipeds to approximate
manifolds, so the Generalized Stokes’ Theorem shouldn’t be a surprise.
Theorem 3.2 (Generalized Stokes’ Theorem). Let M be an oriented manifold with
boundary ∂M , and ω be a differential k-form on ∂M . Then
Z Z
dω = ω.
M ∂M

With our definition of the exterior derivative, the proof of Stokes’ Theorem is
conceptually straightforward:
(1) Show it holds when M is a parallelepiped
(2) By collapsing parts of the boundary of a parallelepiped, show it holds when
M is a simplex, and therefore a polyhedron
(3) Approximate M by polyhedra. (If M has no global coordinate chart, then
use a partition of unity.) Show the formula holds in the limit.
 VISUALIZING EXTERIOR CALCULUS 13

The trickiest part of proving Stokes’ Theorem is showing that our definition is
well-defined (i.e. the limit exists and produces a k-form), and is equivalent to the
usual definition. I won’t prove this, but here’s an example illustrating a particular
case. In the figure below, we’re evaluating dω p (εe1 , εe2 ), where ω = a dx + b dy is
a 1-form in R2 and {e1 , e2 } is the standard basis for R2 . Based on the picture,
     
∂b ∂a
dω p (εe1 , εe2 ) = −εa(p + εe2 ) + εa(p) + εb(p + εe1 ) − εb(p) ≈ ε ε −ε .
∂x ∂y
This agrees with the usual definition, since
 
∂b ∂a
dω = − dx ∧ dy .
∂x ∂y
The same sort of pattern happens in higher dimensions: opposite faces have opposite
orientations, so we’re essentially computing partial derivatives. The orientation of
the parallelepiped gives us the correct signs on the partial derivatives.

3.2. Visualizing the exterior derivative. We can use the ideas of flux and
divergence to visualize the exterior derivative. This is clearest with 1-forms in R2 .
Consider the below 1-form ω, which we’ve drawn along a small square loop centered
about a point p. The flux of ω about this loop is roughly 3 + 2 − 1 − 2 = 2, so ω
has divergence 2 near p. To visualize this, consider trying to “stitch up” the lines
of ω like in the below right. There’s no way to do this perfectly; there will always
be two “loose threads”. Hence, we can visualize dω at p with two dots.
14 GREGORY BIXLER

3.3. Closed and exact forms. Recall that a form ω is exact if ω = dη for some
η, and closed if dω = 0. Since d2 = 0, all exact forms are closed. The converse
is only partially true: by the Poincaré Lemma, all closed forms are locally exact.
That is, all points have a neighborhood on which the form is exact.11
Hence, we can interpret the exterior derivative as a local barrier to exactness.
To do this, select several points, and then try to stitch up ω as before. There is
a difference: previously, we selected several points around a single central point,
whereas now we just scatter some points. For example, consider the form dy. Since
d(dy) = 0, we expect that dy could be stitched up. Indeed, we can simply extend
the horizontal lines to meet:

If we try to stitch up x dy in the same way, we end up with loose threads popping
up at each lattice point of the plane. The set of lattice points is precisely our visual
representation of dx ∧ dy, which is d(x dy).

One might object: why not stitch up x dy differently, like the following?

11We could continue down this path: by checking which locally exact forms are not globally
exact, we can probe the topology of our manifold. This leads to the de Rham cohomology.
 VISUALIZING EXTERIOR CALCULUS 15

The problem is that in the middle, the stitching doesn’t agree with the form—it’s
curved, but the form is horizontal. But wasn’t the correct stitching also curved? It
looks like it was, but it wasn’t. The below image shows, from left to right,
(1) what the form x dy actually looks like
(2) what the correct patching looks like
(3) what the incorrect patching looks like

So, a form isn’t closed if stitching it together requires loose threads. What
about a form that is closed, but not exact? The typical example is the form
dθ = (y dx − x dy)/(x2 + y 2 ) defined on R2 \ 0. As you can see below, dθ has many
loose threads starting from the origin, which is outside the domain of dθ. (The
stitching looks unnatural because I used a small number of points. With more
points, dθ should look like many spokes sticking out of the origin.)

3.4. Future work: Lie derivative. The exterior derivative generalizes flux and
divergence. If we instead generalize the “difference quotient”, we end up with the
directional derivative, and then the Lie derivative Lv ω of a k-form ω along a path
given by the vector field v.
Though the Lie derivative and exterior derivative are quite different ways of
generalizing the derivative to exterior calculus, they are related by a simple formula,
called Cartan’s magic formula, which also bring in interior multiplication.
Lv = dιv + ιv d.
To prove this, one usually shows the LHS and RHS are a special type of operator
called a derivation, which implies it need only be shown for 0-forms and 1-forms.
This proof gives an interesting view of the algebraic structure of these operators.
16 GREGORY BIXLER

However, it certainly isn’t visual. I spent much of the summer hunting for com-
patible visualizations of interior multiplication and the Lie and exterior derivatives,
hoping that all would fit in the same picture and shine a new light on this formula.
Such a picture remains elusive. Maybe you can find it! Arnold hints at a visual
proof with a different style of visualization in [1, p. 198].
Acknowledgments. It is a pleasure to thank my mentor, Kevin Casto, for guid-
ing me through this project. I would also like to thank Aygul Galimova, Alex
Manchester, and Doug Stryker for several fruitful conversations. I especially thank
William Garland for helping me think through several of my visualization attempts.
Finally, I thank Peter May for organizing the wonderful U Chicago REU program.

References
[1] V. I. Arnold. Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics, 2nd edition. Springer-Verlag.
1989.
[2] David Bachman. A Geometric Approach to Differential Forms.
https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0306194v1
[3] Henri Grassman. Die lineale Ausdehnungslehre.
[4] John M. Lee. Introduction to Smooth Manifolds, 2nd edition. Springer-Verlag. 2013.
[5] Dan Piponi. On the Visualization of Differential Forms.
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.126.1099&rep=rep1&type=pdf
[6] Gabriel Weinreich. Geometrical Vectors. Chicago University Press. 1998.