As I thught about the purpose of the document, which is simply a way to use Mathcad to calculate Christoffel symbols and the geodesic equation, I decided to rewrite it to better agree with the equation that I put at the beginning. I also came to the conclusion that the symbolic method was not the right tool for 2 reasons: it is much slower, and it contantly rewrites the page. In fact, that very rewriting is responsible for performance hits, as screen rendering is a known performance hit.
The program is much cleaner now, and runs much faster. I think the less cluttered logic, though not so generic, is easier to follow and map to the 2nd equation, which is the one that I use to calculate the symbols. And that, as an educational tool, is the goal. I left in the symbolic stuff so that others may use it if they wish.
I also noted that the image that is at the top right of page 1 changes color after I run the symbolic version!
~R~
Edit 2014-03-06: Replace file.
Edit 2014-03-16: Replace file. Corrected errors in text. Rewrote Dx to be more intuitive (I thought) with respect to the equation it models. Expanded explanations for the Mathcad novice. Provided text reference for general relativity used as a basis for the document.
~R~