Revolutions Of Geometry

In an effort to fully appreciate the logic and structure of geometric proofs, Revolutions of Geometry places proofs into the context of geometry's history, helping readers to understand that proof writing is crucial to the job of a mathematician. Written for students and educators of mathematics alike, the book guides readers through the rich history and influential works, from ancient times to the present, behind the development of geometry. As a result, readers are successfully equipped with the necessary logic to develop a full understanding of geometric theorems. Following a presentation of the geometry of ancient Egypt, Babylon, and China, the author addresses mathematical philosophy and logic within the context of works by Thales, Plato, and Aristotle. Next, the mathematics of the classical Greeks is discussed, incorporating the teachings of Pythagoras and his followers along with an overview of lower-level geometry using Euclid's Elements. Subsequent chapters explore the work of Archimedes, Viete's revolutionary contributions to algebra, Descartes' merging of algebra and geometry to solve the Pappus problem, and Desargues' development of projective geometry. The author also supplies an excursion into non-Euclidean geometry, including the three hypotheses of Saccheri and Lambert and the near simultaneous discoveries of Lobachevski and Bolyai. Finally, modern geometry is addressed within the study of manifolds and elliptic geometry inspired by Riemann's work, Poncelet's return to projective geometry, and Klein's use of group theory to characterize different geometries.