In mathematics, a smooth compact manifold M is called almost flat if for any ε>0{\displaystyle \varepsilon >0} there is a Riemannian metric gε{\displaystyle g_{\varepsilon }} on M such that diam(M,gε)≤1{\displaystyle {\mbox{diam}}(M,g_{\varepsilon })\leq 1} and gε{\displaystyle g_{\varepsilon }} is ε{\displaystyle \varepsilon }-flat, i.e. for the sectional curvature of Kgε{\displaystyle K_{g_{\varepsilon }}} we have |Kgϵ|<ε{\displaystyle |K_{g_{\epsilon }}|<\varepsilon }.