# What has a chain homotopy to do with homotopy?

I'm in an intro algebraic topology class. In the textbook Algebraic Topology (Hatcher), a chain homotopy is defined by saying that a map $P$ is a chain homotopy between two maps $f$ and $g$ if $dP + Pd = g - f$, where $d$ is the boundary map in a chain complex.

What I don't understand is what this has to do with homotopy. In what sense is a chain homotopy a homotopy?

• An instructive exercise, if you learn about simplicial things, is to see that a simplicial homotopy $X\times \Delta[1] \to Y$ induces a chain homotopy on simplicial chains. That makes the connection between spaces and chains very clear. Feb 22, 2016 at 12:45
• Possibly related: math.stackexchange.com/questions/132533/… Feb 21, 2018 at 15:24

The highbrow answer is that one can axiomatize homotopy theory, which gives the notion of a model category. In a model category, we use an "interval object" to define the notion of homotopy. For example, in the category of topological spaces, the interval object is $[0,1]$. It turns out one can define an interval object for the category of chain complexes, and if one works out the abstract definition of homotopy in the category of chain complexes, we get exactly the definition you gave.