On Napoleon's theorem in the isotropic plane (Q925134)

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On Napoleon's theorem in the isotropic plane
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    On Napoleon's theorem in the isotropic plane (English)
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    29 May 2008
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    Napoleon's theorem is one of the most famous theorems in the (Euclidean) plane geometry, shown in the middle of the 19th century. Let \(\Delta ABC\) be a triangle and let \(\Delta BAC'\), \(\Delta CBA'\), \(\Delta ACB'\) be equilateral (outer) triangles, and let \(X,Y,Z\) be the circumcenters of these three equilateral triangles. Then Napoleon's theorem shows that \(\Delta XYZ\) is equilateral. In this article, the authors show an extension of Napoleon's theorem to the Galilean plane. In the Galilean plane, the distance between two points \(A(x,y)\) and \(B(x',y')\) is given by \(x'-x\), and the angle of two lines \(y=ax+b\) and \(y=a'x+b'\) is given by \(a'-a\). (Here we don't consider any vertical line.) This geometry has a structure transformation of parallel transformation and vertical shear. In such situation, the authors consider an analogue of Napoleon's theorem and shows it. They say that there are no extensions to higher dimension nor to non-Euclidean geometry, so their effort was spent on another geometry.
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    Cayley-Klein geometries
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    dual numbers
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    Galilean plane
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    isotropic plane
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    Napoleon configuration
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    Napoleon's theorem
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