|
Synthetic Geometry
Synthetic geometry (sometimes referred to as axiomatic geometry or even pure geometry) is geometry without the use of coordinates. It relies on the axiomatic method for proving all results from a few basic properties initially called postulates, and at present called axioms. After the 17th-century introduction by René Descartes of the coordinate method, which was called analytic geometry, the term "synthetic geometry" was coined to refer to the older methods that were, before Descartes, the only known ones. According to Felix Klein Synthetic geometry is that which studies figures as such, without recourse to formulae, whereas analytic geometry consistently makes use of such formulae as can be written down after the adoption of an appropriate system of coordinates. The first systematic approach for synthetic geometry is Euclid's ''Elements''. However, it appeared at the end of the 19th century that Euclid's postulates were not sufficient for characterizing geometry. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geometry
Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is called a ''List of geometers, geometer''. Until the 19th century, geometry was almost exclusively devoted to Euclidean geometry, which includes the notions of point (geometry), point, line (geometry), line, plane (geometry), plane, distance, angle, surface (mathematics), surface, and curve, as fundamental concepts. Originally developed to model the physical world, geometry has applications in almost all sciences, and also in art, architecture, and other activities that are related to graphics. Geometry also has applications in areas of mathematics that are apparently unrelated. For example, methods of algebraic geometry are fundamental in Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, Wiles's proof of Fermat's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Primitive Notion
In mathematics, logic, philosophy, and formal systems, a primitive notion is a concept that is not defined in terms of previously-defined concepts. It is often motivated informally, usually by an appeal to Intuition (knowledge), intuition or taken to be self-evident. In an axiomatic theory, relations between primitive notions are restricted by axioms. Some authors refer to the latter as "defining" primitive notions by one or more axioms, but this can be misleading. Formal theories cannot dispense with primitive notions, under pain of infinite regress (per the regress problem). For example, in contemporary geometry, ''point (geometry), point'', ''line'', and ''contains'' are some primitive notions. Details Alfred Tarski explained the role of primitive notions as follows: :When we set out to construct a given discipline, we distinguish, first of all, a certain small group of expressions of this discipline that seem to us to be immediately understandable; the expressions in this group ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Discrete Geometry
Discrete geometry and combinatorial geometry are branches of geometry that study combinatorial properties and constructive methods of discrete geometric objects. Most questions in discrete geometry involve finite or discrete sets of basic geometric objects, such as points, lines, planes, circles, spheres, polygons, and so forth. The subject focuses on the combinatorial properties of these objects, such as how they intersect one another, or how they may be arranged to cover a larger object. Discrete geometry has a large overlap with convex geometry and computational geometry, and is closely related to subjects such as finite geometry, combinatorial optimization, digital geometry, discrete differential geometry, geometric graph theory, toric geometry, and combinatorial topology. History Polyhedra and tessellations had been studied for many years by people such as Kepler and Cauchy, modern discrete geometry has its origins in the late 19th century. Early topics s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Affine Geometry
In mathematics, affine geometry is what remains of Euclidean geometry when ignoring (mathematicians often say "forgetting") the metric notions of distance and angle. As the notion of '' parallel lines'' is one of the main properties that is independent of any metric, affine geometry is often considered as the study of parallel lines. Therefore, Playfair's axiom (Given a line and a point not on , there is exactly one line parallel to that passes through .) is fundamental in affine geometry. Comparisons of figures in affine geometry are made with affine transformations, which are mappings that preserve alignment of points and parallelism of lines. Affine geometry can be developed in two ways that are essentially equivalent. In synthetic geometry, an affine space is a set of ''points'' to which is associated a set of lines, which satisfy some axioms (such as Playfair's axiom). Affine geometry can also be developed on the basis of linear algebra. In this context an affine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spherical Geometry
300px, A sphere with a spherical triangle on it. Spherical geometry or spherics () is the geometry of the two-dimensional surface of a sphere or the -dimensional surface of higher dimensional spheres. Long studied for its practical applications to astronomy, navigation, and geodesy, spherical geometry and the metrical tools of spherical trigonometry are in many respects analogous to Euclidean plane geometry and trigonometry, but also have some important differences. The sphere can be studied either ''extrinsically'' as a surface embedded in 3-dimensional Euclidean space (part of the study of solid geometry), or ''intrinsically'' using methods that only involve the surface itself without reference to any surrounding space. Principles In plane (Euclidean) geometry, the basic concepts are points and (straight) lines. In spherical geometry, the basic concepts are points and great circles. However, two great circles on a plane intersect in two antipodal points, unlike coplan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elliptic Geometry
Elliptic geometry is an example of a geometry in which Euclid's parallel postulate does not hold. Instead, as in spherical geometry, there are no parallel lines since any two lines must intersect. However, unlike in spherical geometry, two lines are usually assumed to intersect at a single point (rather than two). Because of this, the elliptic geometry described in this article is sometimes referred to as ''single elliptic geometry'' whereas spherical geometry is sometimes referred to as ''double elliptic geometry''. The appearance of this geometry in the nineteenth century stimulated the development of non-Euclidean geometry generally, including hyperbolic geometry. Elliptic geometry has a variety of properties that differ from those of classical Euclidean plane geometry. For example, the sum of the interior angles of any triangle is always greater than 180°. Definitions Elliptic geometry may be derived from spherical geometry by identifying antipodal points of the sphere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Projective Geometry
In mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant with respect to projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary Euclidean geometry, projective geometry has a different setting (''projective space'') and a selective set of basic geometric concepts. The basic intuitions are that projective space has more points than Euclidean space, for a given dimension, and that geometric transformations are permitted that transform the extra points (called "Point at infinity, points at infinity") to Euclidean points, and vice versa. Properties meaningful for projective geometry are respected by this new idea of transformation, which is more radical in its effects than can be expressed by a transformation matrix and translation (geometry), translations (the affine transformations). The first issue for geometers is what kind of geometry is adequate for a novel situation. Unlike in Euclidean geometry, the concept of an angle does not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyperbolic Geometry
In mathematics, hyperbolic geometry (also called Lobachevskian geometry or János Bolyai, Bolyai–Nikolai Lobachevsky, Lobachevskian geometry) is a non-Euclidean geometry. The parallel postulate of Euclidean geometry is replaced with: :For any given line ''R'' and point ''P'' not on ''R'', in the plane containing both line ''R'' and point ''P'' there are at least two distinct lines through ''P'' that do not intersect ''R''. (Compare the above with Playfair's axiom, the modern version of Euclid's parallel postulate.) The hyperbolic plane is a plane (mathematics), plane where every point is a saddle point. Hyperbolic plane geometry is also the geometry of pseudosphere, pseudospherical surfaces, surfaces with a constant negative Gaussian curvature. Saddle surfaces have negative Gaussian curvature in at least some regions, where they local property, locally resemble the hyperbolic plane. The hyperboloid model of hyperbolic geometry provides a representation of event (relativity ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Absolute Geometry
Absolute geometry is a geometry based on an axiom system for Euclidean geometry without the parallel postulate or any of its alternatives. Traditionally, this has meant using only the first four of Euclid's postulates. The term was introduced by János Bolyai in 1832. It is sometimes referred to as neutral geometry, as it is neutral with respect to the parallel postulate. The first four of Euclid's postulates are now considered insufficient as a basis of Euclidean geometry, so other systems (such as Hilbert's axioms without the parallel axiom) are used instead. Properties In Euclid's ''Elements'', the first 28 Propositions and Proposition 31 avoid using the parallel postulate, and therefore are valid in absolute geometry. One can also prove in absolute geometry the exterior angle theorem (an exterior angle of a triangle is larger than either of the remote angles), as well as the Saccheri–Legendre theorem, which states that the sum of the measures of the angles in a triang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Independence (mathematical Logic)
In mathematical logic, independence is the unprovability of some specific sentence from some specific set of other sentences. The sentences in this set are referred to as "axioms". A sentence σ is independent of a given first-order theory ''T'' if ''T'' neither proves nor refutes σ; that is, it is impossible to prove σ from ''T'', and it is also impossible to prove from ''T'' that σ is false. Sometimes, σ is said (synonymously) to be undecidable from ''T''. (This concept is unrelated to the idea of " decidability" as in a decision problem.) A theory ''T'' is independent if no axiom in ''T'' is provable from the remaining axioms in ''T''. A theory for which there is an independent set of axioms is independently axiomatizable. Usage note Some authors say that σ is independent of ''T'' when ''T'' simply cannot prove σ, and do not necessarily assert by this that ''T'' cannot refute σ. These authors will sometimes say "σ is independent of and consistent with ''T''" to indi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parallel Postulate
In geometry, the parallel postulate is the fifth postulate in Euclid's ''Elements'' and a distinctive axiom in Euclidean geometry. It states that, in two-dimensional geometry: If a line segment intersects two straight lines forming two interior angles on the same side that are less than two right angles, then the two lines, if extended indefinitely, meet on that side on which the angles sum to less than two right angles. This postulate does not specifically talk about parallel lines; it is only a postulate related to parallelism. Euclid gave the definition of parallel lines in Book I, Definition 23 just before the five postulates. ''Euclidean geometry'' is the study of geometry that satisfies all of Euclid's axioms, including the parallel postulate. The postulate was long considered to be obvious or inevitable, but proofs were elusive. Eventually, it was discovered that inverting the postulate gave valid, albeit different geometries. A geometry where the parallel postulate do ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Consistency
In deductive logic, a consistent theory is one that does not lead to a logical contradiction. A theory T is consistent if there is no formula \varphi such that both \varphi and its negation \lnot\varphi are elements of the set of consequences of T. Let A be a set of closed sentences (informally "axioms") and \langle A\rangle the set of closed sentences provable from A under some (specified, possibly implicitly) formal deductive system. The set of axioms A is consistent when there is no formula \varphi such that \varphi \in \langle A \rangle and \lnot \varphi \in \langle A \rangle. A ''trivial'' theory (i.e., one which proves every sentence in the language of the theory) is clearly inconsistent. Conversely, in an explosive formal system (e.g., classical or intuitionistic propositional or first-order logics) every inconsistent theory is trivial. Consistency of a theory is a syntactic notion, whose semantic counterpart is satisfiability. A theory is satisfiable if it has a mod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
