GEOMETRY

From:
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761569706_6/ Geomet

http://math.youngzones.org/geom_history.html
 HISTORY
 Geometry—from the Greek words geô, “earth,”
and metrein, “to measure”
– an accurate description of the works of the
earliest geometers
– concerned with problems such as measuring
the size of fields and laying out accurate right
angles for the corners of buildings.
 Geometry: Timeline
Egyptians
 c. 2000 - 500 B.C. - Ancient Egyptians
demonstrated a practical knowledge of
geometry through surveying and construction
projects.
– The Nile River overflowed its banks every
year, and the river banks would have to be
re-surveyed. In the Rhind Papyrus, pi is
approximated.
Babylonians
 c. 2000 - 500 B.C. - Ancient clay tablets reveal
that the Babylonians knew the Pythagorean
relationships. One clay tablet reads, “4 is the
length and 5 the diagonal. What is the breadth?
Its size is not known. 4 times 4 is 16. 5 times 5
is 25. You take 16 from 25 and there remains
9. What times what shall I take in order to get
9? 3 times 3 is 9. 3 is the breadth”.
Greeks
 c. 750-250 B.C. - Ancient Greeks practiced
centuries of experimental geometry like Egypt
and Babylonia had, and they absorbed the
experimental geometry of both of those cultures.

 Created the first formal mathematics of any kind

by organizing geometry with rules of logic.
Euclid's (400BC) important geometry book The
Elements formed the basis for most of the
geometry studied in schools ever since.
 After the fall of the Greek and Roman
civilizations, Europe entered the Dark Ages.
 Advances in geometry were made largely by
Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa
and Hindus in India.
 Most of the works of Greek mathematics were
scattered or lost. Some of these, including
Elements, were translated and studied by the
Muslims and Hindus.
 During the 12th and 13th centuries Elements was
translated from Greek and Arabic into Latin and the
modern European languages, and geometry was
added to the curriculum of monastery schools.

 The next great stride in geometry was taken by

French philosopher and mathematician René
Descartes, whose influential treatise Discourse on
Method was published in 1637. He introduced a
method of representing geometric figures within a
coordinate system. His work forged a link between
geometry and algebra by showing how to apply the
methods of one discipline to the other. This link is
the basis of analytic geometry, a subject that
underlies much modern work in geometry.
 In the 18th century, Gaspard Monge, a French
professor of mathematics, developed still another
branch of geometry, called descriptive geometry.
– Descriptive geometry is the science of making
accurate, two-dimensional drawings, or
representations, of three-dimensional
geometrical forms and of graphically solving
problems relating to the size and position in
space of such forms. Descriptive geometry is
the basis of much of engineering and
architectural drafting.
 Modern Geometry
 Analytic, projective, and descriptive geometry came
into being within the framework of Euclidean
geometry.
 For many centuries mathematicians believed that
Euclid’s fifth postulate of the unique parallel could
be proved on the basis of Euclid’s first four
postulates, but all efforts to discover such a proof
were fruitless. In the 19th century, however,
geometries were developed in which Euclid's fifth
postulate was replaced by alternative statements.
The leaders in developing these non-Euclidean
geometries were Carl Friedrich Gauss, János Bolyai,
Nikolay I. Lobachevsky, and George Friedrich
Bernhard Riemann.
 In 1872 German mathematician Felix Klein
used a relatively new branch of mathematics
called group theory to unify and classify all the
geometries of his time. In 1899 David Hilbert,
another German mathematician, published his
Foundations of Geometry, which provided a
rigorous system of axioms for Euclidean
geometry and exerted great influence on other
branches of mathematics.
 In1916 the theory of relativity showed that
many physical phenomena could be deduced
from geometric principles. The success of the
theory gave impetus to studies in differential
geometry and in topology.
 The Five Postulates of Euclid
 It is possible to draw a straight line from any
point to another point.
 It is possible to produce a finite straight line
continuously in a straight line.
 It is possible to describe a circle with any
center and radius.
 The Five Postulates of Euclid
 All right angles are equal to one another.
 If a straight line falling on two straight lines
makes the interior angles on the same side less
than two right angles, the straight lines (if
extended indefinitely) meet on the side on
which the angles which are less than two
right angles lie.
 Point

 Point – defined by (x,y)

y
P2
x = abscissa or x – d
coordinate P1
y = ordinate or y-
x
coordinate
 Line
 Line - shortest distance between two points

d
 Angle
 The union of two rays

angle
 Plane
 The union of three noncollinear points

P
 Two lines are parallel if they are on the same
plane and will never intersect(alsohave the
same slope).
 Two lines are perpendicular if they intersect
and the intersection form a right angle(90
degrees).
 If two lines do not intersect, then they are either
parallel lines or they are skew lines.
 Two Parallel lines
 Twoskew lines( the two lines do not lie on the
same plane and which do not intersect)
 Triangle Properties
 Ina triangle, the sum of any two side must be
greater than the third side.

 In
a right triangle, the sum of the squares of the
two legs is equal to the square of the
hypotenuse.
 Congruence
 Three well-known criteria for the congruence of
triangles

 a) sas
 b) asa

 c) sss