Euclidean geometry

geometry based upon the postulates of Euclid, esp. the postulate that only one line may be drawn through a given point parallel to a given line.

[1860-65]

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Study of points, lines, angles, surfaces, and solids based on Euclid's axioms.

Its importance lies less in its results than in the systematic method Euclid used to develop and present them. This axiomatic method has been the model for many systems of rational thought, even outside mathematics, for over 2,000 years. From 10 axioms and postulates, Euclid deduced 465 theorems, or propositions, concerning aspects of plane and solid geometric figures. This work was long held to constitute an accurate description of the physical world and to provide a sufficient basis for understanding it. During the 19th century, rejection of some of Euclid's postulates resulted in two non-Euclidean geometries that proved just as valid and consistent.

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Introduction

      the study of plane and solid figures on the basis of axioms and theorems employed by the Greek mathematician Euclid (c. 300 BC). In its rough outline, Euclidean geometry is the plane and solid geometry commonly taught in secondary schools. Indeed, until the second half of the 19th century, when non-Euclidean geometries (non-Euclidean geometry) attracted the attention of mathematicians, geometry meant Euclidean geometry. It is the most typical expression of general mathematical thinking. Rather than the memorization of simple algorithms to solve equations by rote, it demands true insight into the subject, clever ideas for applying theorems in special situations, an ability to generalize from known facts, and an insistence on the importance of proof. In Euclid's great work, the Elements, the only tools employed for geometrical constructions were the ruler and compass—a restriction retained in elementary Euclidean geometry to this day.

      In its rigorous deductive organization, the Elements remained the very model of scientific exposition until the end of the 19th century, when the German mathematician David Hilbert (Hilbert, David) wrote his famous Foundations of Geometry (1899). The modern version of Euclidean geometry is the theory of Euclidean (coordinate) spaces of multiple dimensions, where distance is measured by a suitable generalization of the Pythagorean theorem. See analytic geometry and algebraic geometry.

Fundamentals

      Euclid realized that a rigorous development of geometry must start with the foundations. Hence, he began the Elements with some undefined terms, such as “a point is that which has no part” and “a line is a length without breadth.” Proceeding from these terms, he defined further ideas such as angles, circles, triangles, and various other polygons and figures. For example, an angle was defined as the inclination of two straight lines, and a circle was a plane figure consisting of all points that have a fixed distance (radius) from a given centre.

      As a basis for further logical deductions, Euclid proposed five common notions, such as “things equal to the same thing are equal,” and five unprovable but intuitive principles known variously as postulates or axioms. Stated in modern terms, the axioms are as follows:

● 1. Given two points, there is a straight line that joins them.

● 2. A straight line segment can be prolonged indefinitely.

● 3. A circle can be constructed when a point for its centre and a distance for its radius are given.

● 4. All right angles are equal.

● 5. If a straight line falling on two straight lines makes the interior angles on the same side less than two right angles, the two straight lines, if produced indefinitely, will meet on that side on which the angles are less than the two right angles.

      Hilbert refined axioms (1) and (5) as follows:

● 1. For any two different points, (a) there exists a line containing these two points, and (b) this line is unique.

● 5. For any line L and point p not on L, (a) there exists a line through p not meeting L, and (b) this line is unique.

      The fifth axiom became known as the “parallel postulate,” since it provided a basis for the uniqueness of parallel lines. (It also attracted great interest because it seemed less intuitive or self-evident than the others. In the 19th century, Carl Friedrich Gauss (Gauss, Carl Friedrich), János Bolyai (Bolyai, János), and Nikolay Lobachevsky (Lobachevsky, Nikolay Ivanovich) all began to experiment with this postulate, eventually arriving at new, non-Euclidean, geometries (non-Euclidean geometry).) All five axioms provided the basis for numerous provable statements, or theorems, on which Euclid built his geometry. The rest of this article briefly explains the most important theorems of Euclidean plane and solid geometry.

Plane geometry

Congruence of triangles

 Two triangles are said to be congruent if one can be exactly superimposed on the other by a rigid motion, and the congruence theorems specify the conditions under which this can occur. The first theorem illustrated in the diagram—> is the side-angle-side (SAS) theorem: If two sides and the included angle of one triangle are equal to two sides and the included angle of another triangle, the triangles are congruent. Following this, there are corresponding angle-side-angle (ASA) and side-side-side (SSS) theorems.

      The first very useful theorem derived from the axioms is the basic symmetry property of isosceles triangles—i.e., that two sides of a triangle are equal if and only if the angles opposite them are equal. Euclid's proof of this theorem was once called Pons Asinorum (“”), supposedly because mediocre students could not proceed across it to the farther reaches of geometry. (For an illustrated exposition of the proof, see Sidebar: The Bridge of Asses). The Bridge of Asses opens the way to various theorems on the congruence of triangles.

 The parallel postulate is fundamental for the proof of the theorem that the sum of the angles of a triangle is always 180 degrees. A simple proof of this theorem, attributed to the Pythagoreans, is shown in the diagram—>.

Similarity of triangles

 As indicated above, congruent figures have the same shape and size. Similar figures, on the other hand, have the same shape but may differ in size. Shape is intimately related to the notion of proportion, as ancient Egyptian artisans observed long ago. Segments of lengths a, b, c, and d are said to be proportional if a:b = c:d (read, a is to b as c is to d; in older notation a:b::c:d). The fundamental theorem of similarity states that a line segment splits two sides of a triangle into proportional segments if and only if the segment is parallel to the triangle's third side (see figure—>).

      The similarity theorem may be reformulated as the AAA (angle-angle-angle) similarity theorem: two triangles have their corresponding angles equal if and only if their corresponding sides are proportional. Two similar triangles are related by a scaling (or similarity) factor s: if the first triangle has sides a, b, and c, then the second one will have sides sa, sb, and sc. In addition to the ubiquitous use of scaling factors on construction plans and geographic maps, similarity is fundamental to trigonometry.

Areas

 Just as a segment can be measured by comparing it with a unit segment, the area of a polygon or other plane figure can be measured by comparing it with a unit square. The common formulas for calculating areas reduce this kind of measurement to the measurement of certain suitable lengths. The simplest case is a rectangle with sides a and b, which has area ab. By putting a triangle into an appropriate rectangle (see figure—>), one can show that the area of the triangle is half the product of the length of one of its bases and its corresponding height—bh/2. One can then compute the area of a general polygon by dissecting it into triangular regions. If a triangle (or more general figure) has area A, a similar triangle (or figure) with a scaling factor of s will have an area of s²A.

Pythagorean theorem

      For a triangle △ABC the Pythagorean theorem has two parts: (1) if ∠ACB is a right angle, then a² + b² = c²; (2) if a² + b² = c², then ∠ACB is a right angle. For an arbitrary triangle, the Pythagorean theorem is generalized to the law of cosines: a² + b² = c² − 2ab cos (∠ACB). When ∠ACB is 90 degrees, this reduces to the Pythagorean theorem because cos (90°) = 0.

      Since Euclid, a host of professional and amateur mathematicians have found more than 300 distinct proofs of the Pythagorean theorem. Despite its antiquity, it remains one of the most important theorems in mathematics. It enables one to calculate distances or, more importantly, to define distances in situations far more general than elementary geometry. For example, it has been generalized to multidimensional vector spaces (vector space).

Circles

 A chord AB is a segment in the interior of a circle connecting two points (A and B) on the circumference. When a chord passes through the circle's centre, it is a diameter, d. The circumference of a circle is given by πd, or 2πr where r is the radius of the circle; the area of a circle is πr². In each case, π (pi) is the same constant (3.14159…). The Greek mathematician Archimedes (c. 285–212/211 BC) used the method of exhaustion (exhaustion, method of) to obtain upper and lower bounds for π by circumscribing and inscribing regular polygons (Euclidean geometry) about a circle (see animation—>).

 A semicircle has its end points on a diameter of a circle. Thales (flourished 6th century BC) is generally credited with proving that any angle inscribed in a semicircle is a right angle; that is, for any point C on the semicircle with diameter AB, ∠ACB will always be 90 degrees (see Sidebar: Thales' Rectangle). Another important theorem states that for any chord AB in a circle, the angle subtended by any point on the same semiarc of the circle will be invariant (see figure—>). Slightly modified, this means that in a circle, equal chords determine equal angles, and vice versa.

      Summarizing the above material, the five most important theorems of plane Euclidean geometry are: the sum of the angles in a triangle is 180 degrees, the Bridge of Asses, the fundamental theorem of similarity, the Pythagorean theorem, and the invariance of angles subtended by a chord in a circle. Most of the more advanced theorems of plane Euclidean geometry are proven with the help of these theorems.

Regular polygons

      A polygon is called regular if it has equal sides and angles. Thus, a regular triangle is an equilateral triangle, and a regular quadrilateral is a square. A general problem since antiquity has been the problem of constructing a regular n-gon, for different n, with only ruler and compass. For example, Euclid constructed a regular pentagon by applying the above-mentioned five important theorems in an ingenious combination.

      Techniques, such as bisecting the angles of known constructions, exist for constructing regular n-gons for many values, but none is known for the general case. In 1797, following centuries without any progress, Gauss (Gauss, Carl Friedrich) surprised the mathematical community by discovering a construction for the 17-gon. More generally, Gauss was able to show that for a prime number p, the regular p-gon is constructible if and only if p is a “Fermat prime”: p = F(k) = 2^2k + 1. Because it is not known in general which F(k) are prime, the construction problem for regular n-gons is still open.

      Three other unsolved construction problems from antiquity were finally settled in the 19th century by applying tools not available to the Greeks. Comparatively simple algebraic methods showed that it is not possible to trisect an angle with ruler and compass or to construct a cube with a volume double that of a given cube. To show that it is not possible to square a circle (i.e., to construct a square equal in area to a given circle by the same means), however, demanded deeper insights into the nature of the number π. See geometry: The three classical problems (geometry).

Conic sections and geometric art

      The most advanced part of plane Euclidean geometry is the theory of the conic sections (conic section) (the ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola). Much as the Elements displaced all other introductions to geometry, the Conics of Apollonius of Perga (c. 240–190 BC), known by his contemporaries as “The Great Geometer,” was for many centuries the definitive treatise on the subject.

      Medieval Islamic artists (Islamic arts) explored ways of using geometric figures for decoration. For example, the decorations of the Alhambra of Granada, Spain, demonstrate an understanding of all 17 of the different “Wallpaper groups” that can be used to tile the plane. In the 20th century, internationally renowned artists such as Josef Albers, Max Bill, and Sol Le Witt were inspired by motifs from Euclidean geometry.

Solid geometry

      The most important difference between plane and solid Euclidean geometry is that human beings can look at the plane “from above,” whereas three-dimensional space cannot be looked at “from outside.” Consequently, intuitive insights are more difficult to obtain for solid geometry than for plane geometry.

      Some concepts, such as proportions and angles, remain unchanged from plane to solid geometry. For other familiar concepts, there exist analogies—most noticeably, volume for area and three-dimensional shapes for two-dimensional shapes (sphere for circle, tetrahedron for triangle, box for rectangle). However, the theory of tetrahedra is not nearly as rich as it is for triangles. Active research in higher-dimensional Euclidean geometry includes convexity and sphere packings and their applications in cryptology and crystallography (see crystal: Structure (crystal)).

Volume

      As explained above, in plane geometry the area of any polygon can be calculated by dissecting it into triangles. A similar procedure is not possible for solids. In 1901 the German mathematician Max Dehn (Dehn, Max) showed that there exist a cube and a tetrahedron of equal volume that cannot be dissected and rearranged into each other. This means that calculus must be used to calculate volumes for even many simple solids like pyramids.

Regular solids

      Regular polyhedra are the solid analogies to regular polygons in the plane. Regular polygons are defined as having equal (congruent) sides and angles. In analogy, a solid is called regular if its faces are congruent regular polygons and its polyhedral angles (angles at which the faces meet) are congruent. This concept has been generalized to higher-dimensional (coordinate) Euclidean spaces.

      Whereas in the plane there exist (in theory) infinitely many regular polygons, in three-dimensional space there exist exactly five regular polyhedra. These are known as the Platonic solids (Platonic solid): the tetrahedron, or pyramid, with 4 triangular faces; the cube, with 6 square faces; the octahedron, with 8 equilateral triangular faces; the dodecahedron, with 12 pentagonal faces; and the icosahedron, with 20 equilateral triangular faces.

      In four-dimensional space there exist exactly six regular polytopes, five of them generalizations from three-dimensional space. In any space of more than four dimensions there exist exactly three regular polytopes, the generalizations of the tetrahedron, the cube, and the octahedron.

Benno Artmann

Additional Reading

Benno Artmann, Euclid: The Creation of Mathematics (1999), presents the contents of the Elements in modern terms accessible to a general reader and shows how many aspects of modern mathematics are prefigured by Euclid.H.S.M. Coxeter, Introduction to Geometry, 2nd ed. (1969, reissued 1989), is a very readable scientific work starting from elementary Euclidean geometry and going on to more advanced topics.Robin Hartshorne, Geometry: Euclid and Beyond (2000), is an exhaustive modern presentation for mathematics students; it includes an extensive bibliography.Euclid, The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements, trans. by Thomas L. Heath, 2nd ed., rev., 3 vol. (1926, reprinted 1956), is the standard English translation, with extensive commentary by Heath.David Hilbert, Foundations of Geometry, 2nd ed. (1971, reissued 1992; trans. from German 10th ed., rev. and enlarged, 1968), gives a rigorous and logical account of the foundations of the subject.

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