scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1364808

Publication date 21 November 1999

affine geometry Euclidean geometry non-Euclidean geometry projective geometry

Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to geometry (51-01) General theory of linear incidence geometry and projective geometries (51A05) Euclidean geometries (general) and generalizations (51M05) Elementary problems in hyperbolic and elliptic geometries (51M09)

Review text

This book presents a course in elementary geometry. It is divided in four chapters, each one corresponding to one major chapter of elementary geometry. The first one deals with affine geometry. The introduction of affine spaces is done through groups operating in a set, and it is followed by barycentric calculus, the notion of linear affine variety, linear affine maps, and some classical results, namely the theorems of Thales Ménélaus, Céva, Pappus and Desargues. The second chapter deals with projective geometry; it starts with the definition of projective space and homogeneous coordinates, and then introduces the notion of linear projective variety, followed with the projection completeness of an affine space. Before introducing a section on the topology of the projective space over the real numbers or over the complex numbers, the author explains the notion of linear projective maps, the linear projective group, \(PGl(V)\), and the cross ratio. The chapter ends with the study of the theory of projective conics. The chapter on Euclidean geometry, which is the longest, starts with the geometry of the affine Euclidean spaces, its isometry group, its group of similarities and respective invariants. It also includes extensive sections on the geometry of triangles, spheres and circles, quadrics and conics, and polyhedra. The last chapter presents an axiomatic for the Euclidean plane and proves some results first using only the first three axioms and then using also the axioms of continuity and of parallelism. The book ends with the definition of Poincaré's half-plane model for the hyperbolic plane and the proof that this model satisfies the first four axioms for the Euclidean plane as well as a new axiom. At the end of each section this book contains a list of exercises that not only give the reader the opportunity of testing its knowledge, but more than that helps to complement the information given previously, since very often the exercises are actually classical theorems, whose proofs are usually divided into easier problems. There are also some definitions needed for these problems which were not introduced in the main text and are introduced in the exercise part. All this results in the exercise part of each section being a complement of the text in a double sense. The book contains many illustrations, and almost all theorems and propositions (except those given as exercises) include drawings that help to understand the proof. Altogether this work succeeds in giving an extensive course in classical geometry through modern language, just as the title suggests. It could be considered as a modern version of the Compendium of Geometry.

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