Theorema Egregium

Generalization: Gauss' Equation.
Theorem
If f:S1S2 is a local isometry, then the Gaussian curvature of S1
at P equals the Gauss curvature of S2 at f(P).

As a precursor of this theorem, Gauss stated 10 years before the "beautiful theorem":
If a curved surface on which a figure is fixed takes different shapes in space, then the surface area of the spherical image of the figure is always the same.
Pasted image 20220420185650.png
See @needham2021visual page 139

Taking into account the definition of Gauss curvature given here, it is clear that Theorema Egregium is a local version of the beautiful theorem, since KδA~δA and δA is trivially invariant under isometries.

Paper folding

Among other things, this theorem shows us why paper only folds into straight lines (@needham2021visual page 221 exercise 11). The paper, at first, is flat so K=κ1κ2=0. After folding it must conserve the Gaussian curvature . But if the fold were not a straight line, by inspecting the normal curvatures at a point of the fold we would conclude they are always greater than 0, which would be imposible.

Generalization

See Gauss' Equation.