Kim Matthews: /* See also */

2016-05-22T20:40:16Z

‎See also

Karl Jones: Created page with "'''Euclidean geometry''' is a mathematical system attributed to the Alexandrian Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the [[Elements]..."

2016-04-27T20:10:51Z

Created page with "'''Euclidean geometry''' is a mathematical system attributed to the Alexandrian Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the [[Elements]..."

New page

'''Euclidean geometry''' is a mathematical system attributed to the Alexandrian Greek mathematician [[Euclid]], which he described in his textbook on geometry: the [[Elements]].

== Description ==

Euclid's method consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing [[axioms]], and deducing many other propositions (theorems) from these.

Although many of Euclid's results had been stated by earlier mathematicians, Euclid was the first to show how these propositions could fit into a comprehensive deductive and logical system.

The Elements begins with plane geometry, still taught in secondary school as the first axiomatic system and the first examples of formal proof.

It goes on to the solid geometry of three dimensions.

Much of the Elements states results of what are now called [[algebra]] and [[number theory]], explained in geometrical language.

For more than two thousand years, the adjective "Euclidean" was unnecessary because no other sort of geometry had been conceived.

Euclid's axioms seemed so intuitively obvious (with the possible exception of the parallel postulate) that any theorem proved from them was deemed true in an absolute, often metaphysical, sense.

Today, however, many other self-consistent non-Euclidean geometries are known, the first ones having been discovered in the early 19th century.

An implication of [[Albert Einstein]]'s [[theory of general relativity]] is that physical space itself is not Euclidean, and Euclidean space is a good approximation for it only where the gravitational field is weak.

Euclidean geometry is an example of [[synthetic geometry]], in that it proceeds logically from axioms to propositions without the use of coordinates. This is in contrast to [[analytic geometry]], which uses coordinates.

== See also ==

* [[Euclid]]

== External links ==

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclidean_geometry Euclidean geometry] @ Wikipedia

[[Category:Geometry]]
[[Category:Logic]]
[[Category:Mathematics]]

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Euclidean geometry - Revision history

Kim Matthews: /* See also */

Karl Jones: Created page with "'''Euclidean geometry''' is a mathematical system attributed to the Alexandrian Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the [[Elements]..."