Plane and solid geometry. Transl. from the Dutch by Reinie Erné (Q2477043)

The book `Plane and solid geometry' presents elementary results of Euclidean geometry in two and three dimensions, called plane and solid geometry, respectively. The book is a result of courses and talks given by the author in Delft and Amsterdam. The presentation, notions and notations often differ from usual ones: The axioms of Euclidean geometry are replaced by the author by his own `basic assumptions' 1--9 where he interprets the Euclidean space as a metric space in order to use properties of metric spaces. As example, he stresses the fact that a straight line is an isometric copy of the reals \(\mathbb R\). Here the contents: Chapter 1, `Plane geometry', starts with Pythagorean theorem. Different proofs are given including the proof of the inverse Pythagorean theorem. The author uses the theorem to define when two lines are perpendicular. Metrics and metric spaces, the inner product and determinants, and isometries are dealt with. In one section the `Basic assumptions of plane geometry' are presented. Chapter 2, `Transformations', deals with reflections, translations, rotations, congruence, similarity, fractals. Chapter 3, `Symmetry', is a constructive combinatorial part, it includes frieze patterns, Voronoi diagrams, periodic tilings. Chapter 4, `Curves', is an analytic part. It describes, among others, the circle, trigonometric functions, polar coordinates, as well as the conic sections parabola, ellipse, hyperbola. In Chapter 5, `Solid geometry', the three-dimensional Euclidean space is introduced as a metric space using `Basic assumptions of solid geometry'. Parallel and perpendicular lines, parallel and central projections, symmetry and regular polyhedra, quadrics and ruled surfaces are presented. The book concludes with an appendix which summarizes the basic assumptions for both plane and solid geometry. Because of the unusual notions, the reviewer would recommend the book mainly to readers who are already familiar with the classical approach to Euclidean spaces. With this background the reader may appreciate the metric space approach of the author which seems to be an interesting additional alternative to the classical approach. However, it remains unclear how far the `basic assumptions' of the author for two- and three-dimensional Euclidean spaces are equivalent to the classical axioms of Euclidean geometry.