Geodesic equation

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Assume that you have a parametrization of a surface $f:\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^2 \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^3,(u,v) \mapsto f(u,v)$.

Now if I have a curve defined by $g(t)=f(0,t)$.

The geodesic equation(just one component) is given by $$\gamma''_u + 2 \Gamma_{uv}^u \gamma'_u \gamma'_v =0$$

Now I was wondering: How exactly is $\gamma''_u$ for example defined in terms of the curve $g$?

So assume anybody told you that $g$ is a geodesic and you wanted to check this. How could this be done? If anything is unclear, please let me know.

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The dashes just denote the derivative of your curve (which is a function of a real variable). I'm going to use dots instead of dashes to stop them from getting in the way of the indices.

Your geodesic equation doesn't seem to be correct - the general expression is

$$ \ddot \gamma^i = \Gamma^i_{jk} \dot\gamma^j \dot\gamma^k,$$

so even if you're taking the $u$ component it should be

$$ \ddot \gamma^u = \Gamma^u_{jk} \dot \gamma^j \dot \gamma^k$$

where $j$ and $k$ are both summed over $\{u,v\}$.

Your particular curve $\gamma(t) = f(0,t)$ has coordinate representation $(\gamma^u,\gamma^v)(t) = (0,t)$. Just differentiating this gives you $\dot \gamma = (0,1) = \partial_v$ and $\ddot \gamma = 0$. Thus the geodesic equation for $\gamma$ is simply $$0=\Gamma^i_{vv}.$$

So to check that this particular $\gamma$ is a geodesic, you need to compute the symbols $\Gamma$ in your particular parametrization and check that the components $\Gamma^u_{vv}, \Gamma^v_{vv}$ are zero.