A Course in Modern Geometries is designed for a junior-senior level course for mathematics majors, including those who plan to teach in secondary school. Chapter 1 presents several finite geometries in an axiomatic framework. Chapter 2 introduces Euclid's geometry and the basic ideas of non-Euclidean geometry. The synthetic approach of Chapters 1 - 2 is followed by the analytic treatment of transformations of the Euclidean plane in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 presents plane projective geometry both synthetically and analytically. The extensive use of matrix representations of groups of transformations in Chapters 3 - 4 reinforces ideas from linear algebra and serves as excellent preparation for a course in abstract algebra. Each chapter includes a list of suggested sources for applications and/or related topics.
Designed for a junior-senior level course for mathematics majors, including those who plan to teach in secondary school. The first chapter presents several finite geometries in an axiomatic framework, while Chapter 2 continues the synthetic approach in introducing both Euclids and ideas of non-Euclidean geometry. There follows a new introduction to symmetry and hands-on explorations of isometries that precedes an extensive analytic treatment of similarities and affinities. Chapter 4 presents plane projective geometry both synthetically and analytically, and the new Chapter 5 uses a descriptive and exploratory approach to introduce chaos theory and fractal geometry, stressing the self-similarity of fractals and their generation by transformations from Chapter 3. Throughout, each chapter includes a list of suggested resources for applications or related topics in areas such as art and history, plus this second edition points to Web locations of author-developed guides for dynamic software explorations of the Poincaré model, isometries, projectivities, conics and fractals. Parallel versions are available for "Cabri Geometry" and "Geometers Sketchpad".
Engaging, accessible, and extensively illustrated, this brief, but solid introduction to modern geometry describes geometry as it is understood and used by contemporary mathematicians and theoretical scientists. Basically non-Euclidean in approach, it relates geometry to familiar ideas from analytic geometry, staying firmly in the Cartesian plane. It uses the principle geometric concept of congruence or geometric transformation--introducing and using the Erlanger Program explicitly throughout. It features significant modern applications of geometry--e.g., the geometry of relativity, symmetry, art and crystallography, finite geometry and computation. Covers a full range of topics from plane geometry, projective geometry, solid geometry, discrete geometry, and axiom systems. For anyone interested in an introduction to geometry used by contemporary mathematicians and theoretical scientists.
This book emphasizes the beauty of geometry using a modern approach. Models & computer exercises help readers to cultivate geometric intuition. Topics include Euclidean Geometry, Hand Constructions, Geometer's Sketch Pad, Hyperbolic Geometry, Tilings & Lattices, Spherical Geometry, Projective Geometry, Finite Geometry, and Modern Geometry Research. Ideal for geometry at an intermediate level.
This introduction to modern geometry differs from other books in the field due to its emphasis on applications and its discussion of special relativity as a major example of a non-Euclidean geometry. Additionally, it covers the two important areas of non-Euclidean geometry, spherical geometry and projective geometry, as well as emphasising transformations, and conics and planetary orbits. Much emphasis is placed on applications throughout the book, which motivate the topics, and many additional applications are given in the exercises. It makes an excellent introduction for those who need to know how geometry is used in addition to its formal theory.
A Course in Modern Geometries is designed for a junior-senior level course for mathematics majors, including those who plan to teach in secondary school. Chapter 1 presents several finite geometries in an axiomatic framework. Chapter 2 introduces Euclid's geometry and the basic ideas of non-Euclidean geometry. The synthetic approach of Chapters 1 - 2 is followed by the analytic treatment of transformations of the Euclidean plane in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 presents plane projective geometry both synthetically and analytically. The extensive use of matrix representations of groups of transformations in Chapters 3 - 4 reinforces ideas from linear algebra and serves as excellent preparation for a course in abstract algebra. Each chapter includes a list of suggested sources for applications and/or related topics.
This comprehensive, best-selling text focuses on the study of many different geometries -- rather than a single geometry -- and is thoroughly modern in its approach. Each chapter is essentially a short course on one aspect of modern geometry, including finite geometries, the geometry of transformations, convexity, advanced Euclidian geometry, inversion, projective geometry, geometric aspects of topology, and non-Euclidean geometries. This edition reflects the recommendations of the COMAP proceedings on Geometry's Future, the NCTM standards, and the Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics. References to a new companion text, Active Geometry by David A. Thomas encourage students to explore the geometry of motion through the use of computer software. Using Active Geometry at the beginning of various sections allows professors to give students a somewhat more intuitive introduction using current technology before moving on to more abstract concepts and theorems.
Designed for a junior-senior level course for mathematics majors, including those who plan to teach in secondary school. The first chapter presents several finite geometries in an axiomatic framework, while Chapter 2 continues the synthetic approach in introducing both Euclids and ideas of non-Euclidean geometry. There follows a new introduction to symmetry and hands-on explorations of isometries that precedes an extensive analytic treatment of similarities and affinities. Chapter 4 presents plane projective geometry both synthetically and analytically, and the new Chapter 5 uses a descriptive and exploratory approach to introduce chaos theory and fractal geometry, stressing the self-similarity of fractals and their generation by transformations from Chapter 3. Throughout, each chapter includes a list of suggested resources for applications or related topics in areas such as art and history, plus this second edition points to Web locations of author-developed guides for dynamic software explorations of the Poincaré model, isometries, projectivities, conics and fractals. Parallel versions are available for "Cabri Geometry" and "Geometers Sketchpad".
The book is an innovative modern exposition of geometry, or rather, of geometries; it is the first textbook in which Felix Klein's Erlangen Program (the action of transformation groups) is systematically used as the basis for defining various geometries. The course of study presented is dedicated to the proposition that all geometries are created equal--although some, of course, remain more equal than others. The author concentrates on several of the more distinguished and beautiful ones, which include what he terms ``toy geometries'', the geometries of Platonic bodies, discrete geometries, and classical continuous geometries. The text is based on first-year semester course lectures delivered at the Independent University of Moscow in 2003 and 2006. It is by no means a formal algebraic or analytic treatment of geometric topics, but rather, a highly visual exposition containing upwards of 200 illustrations. The reader is expected to possess a familiarity with elementary Euclidean geometry, albeit those lacking this knowledge may refer to a compendium in Chapter 0. Per the author's predilection, the book contains very little regarding the axiomatic approach to geometry (save for a single chapter on the history of non-Euclidean geometry), but two Appendices provide a detailed treatment of Euclid's and Hilbert's axiomatics. Perhaps the most important aspect of this course is the problems, which appear at the end of each chapter and are supplemented with answers at the conclusion of the text. By analyzing and solving these problems, the reader will become capable of thinking and working geometrically, much more so than by simply learning the theory. Ultimately, the author makes the distinction between concrete mathematical objects called ``geometries'' and the singular ``geometry'', which he understands as a way of thinking about mathematics. Although the book does not address branches of mathematics and mathematical physics such as Riemannian and Kahler manifolds or, say, differentiable manifolds and conformal field theories, the ideology of category language and transformation groups on which the book is based prepares the reader for the study of, and eventually, research in these important and rapidly developing areas of contemporary mathematics.
This book is unique in that it looks at geometry from 4 different viewpoints - Euclid-style axioms, linear algebra, projective geometry, and groups and their invariants Approach makes the subject accessible to readers of all mathematical tastes, from the visual to the algebraic Abundantly supplemented with figures and exercises
