I'd like to respectfully disagree. 'Nonvanishing continuous tangent vector field' is a phrase that can be understood after freshman level multivariable calculus.
More generally, Wikipedia articles on math do tend to rely on the accepted terminology of the field for the opening sentence. It's generally better, however, to skim that bit, pick out the words you know to make sure you're in generally the right place, and then skip around until you find something you can latch onto. If you're really lost, you might need to click around a bit.
It's actually pretty amazing what you can pick up just from looking at the pictures and trying to get the general gist of what's going on rather than getting caught up in the details. But the details have to be there -- without the precision and proper terminology, these articles would not only be wrong; they would also be useless to anyone trying to actually apply them.
I'd like to respectfully disagree. 'Nonvanishing continuous tangent vector field' is a phrase that can be understood after freshman level multivariable calculus.
More generally, Wikipedia articles on math do tend to rely on the accepted terminology of the field for the opening sentence. It's generally better, however, to skim that bit, pick out the words you know to make sure you're in generally the right place, and then skip around until you find something you can latch onto. If you're really lost, you might need to click around a bit.
It's actually pretty amazing what you can pick up just from looking at the pictures and trying to get the general gist of what's going on rather than getting caught up in the details. But the details have to be there -- without the precision and proper terminology, these articles would not only be wrong; they would also be useless to anyone trying to actually apply them.