TITLE: Intuitively, what does it mean that two charts are compatible?
QUESTION [10 upvotes]: Let $(U, \phi), (V, \psi)$ two charts of the same manifold. We say that two charts are $C^\infty$-compatible if the following two maps
$$\phi \circ \psi^{-1} : \psi(U \cap V) \to \phi(U \cap V), \; \psi \circ \phi^{-1} : \phi(U \cap V) \to \psi(U \cap V)$$
are $C^\infty$.
Can someone explain me what's the intuitive meaning of charts compatibility?

REPLY [8 votes]: Suppose that you are going on a hike that requires many trail maps to cover your whole trip.
Now imagine tracing your path on the maps as you walk. At some point your position will be on two maps at once. The path you trace should be smooth in both maps. If your path is smooth in one map, but has kinks or spontaneously teleports from one point to another the other map, then you know there is something wrong.
Generally, if a smooth path drawn on one map corresponds to a nonsmooth path on the other, then you know there is something wrong with at least one of the maps. Regardless of which map is right or wrong, at the very least these maps are "incompatible" with each other.
Replace "map" with "chart", and you have the intuition for the compatibility condition for charts on a manifold.