Euclidean Geometry And Its Subgeometries

Euclidean Geometry and its Subgeometries

In this monograph, the authors present a modern development of Euclidean geometry from independent axioms, using up-to-date language and providing detailed proofs. The axioms for incidence, betweenness, and plane separation are close to those of Hilbert. This is the only axiomatic treatment of Euclidean geometry that uses axioms not involving metric notions and that explores congruence and isometries by means of reflection mappings. The authors present thirteen axioms in sequence, proving as many theorems as possible at each stage and, in the process, building up subgeometries, most notably the Pasch and neutral geometries. Standard topics such as the congruence theorems for triangles, embedding the real numbers in a line, and coordinatization of the plane are included, as well as theorems of Pythagoras, Desargues, Pappas, Menelaus, and Ceva. The final chapter covers consistency and independence of axioms, as well as independence of definition properties. There are over 300 exercises; solutions to many of these, including all that are needed for this development, are available online at the homepage for the book at www.springer.com. Supplementary material is available online covering construction of complex numbers, arc length, the circular functions, angle measure, and the polygonal form of the Jordan Curve theorem. Euclidean Geometry and Its Subgeometries is intended for advanced students and mature mathematicians, but the proofs are thoroughly worked out to make it accessible to undergraduate students as well. It can be regarded as a completion, updating, and expansion of Hilbert's work, filling a gap in the existing literature.

The Infinity Problem, Projective Geometry and Its Regional Subgeometries

A Course in Modern Geometries

A Course in Modern Geometries is designed for a junior-senior level course for mathematics majors, including those who plan to teach in secondary school. Chapter 1 presents several finite geometries in an axiomatic framework. Chapter 2 continues the synthetic approach as it introduces Euclid's geometry and ideas of non-Euclidean geometry. In Chapter 3, a new introduction to symmetry and hands-on explorations of isometries precedes the extensive analytic treatment of isometries, similarities and affinities. A new concluding section explores isometries of space. Chapter 4 presents plane projective geometry both synthetically and analytically. The extensive use of matrix representations of groups of transformations in Chapters 3-4 reinforces ideas from linear algebra and serves as excellent preparation for a course in abstract algebra. The new Chapter 5 uses a descriptive and exploratory approach to introduce chaos theory and fractal geometry, stressing the self-similarity of fractals and their generation by transformations from Chapter 3. Each chapter includes a list of suggested resources for applications or related topics in areas such as art and history. The second edition also includes pointers to the web location of author-developed guides for dynamic software explorations of the Poincaré model, isometries, projectivities, conics and fractals. Parallel versions of these explorations are available for "Cabri Geometry" and "Geometer's Sketchpad". Judith N. Cederberg is an associate professor of mathematics at St. Olaf College in Minnesota.