Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T14:18:46.313Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

From the Author's Preface

Allen Shields
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
Get access

Summary

This work, consisting of three parts, is devoted to elementary geometry. A vast amount of material has been accumulated in elementary geometry, especially in the nineteenth century. Many beautiful and unexpected theorems were proved about circles, triangles, polygons, etc. Within elementary geometry whole separate “sciences” arose, such as the geometry of the triangle or the geometry of the tetrahedron, having their own, extensive, subject matter, their own problems, and their own methods of solving these problems.

The task of the present work is not to acquaint the reader with a series of theorems that are new to him. It seems to us that what has been said above does not, by itself, justify the appearance of a special monograph devoted to elementary geometry, because most of the theorems of elementary geometry that go beyond the limits of a high school course are merely curiosities that have no special use and lie outside the mainstream of mathematical development. However, in addition to concrete theorems, elementary geometry contains two important general ideas that form the basis of all further development in geometry, and whose importance extends far beyond these broad limits. We have in mind the deductive method and the axiomatic foundation of geometry on the one hand, and geometric transformations and the group-theoretic foundation of geometry on the other. These ideas have been very fruitful; the development of each leads to non-Euclidean geometry.

Type
Chapter
Information
Geometric Transformations I
Isometries
, pp. 5 - 6
Publisher: Mathematical Association of America
Print publication year: 1962

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×