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EuclideanspaceWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Euclideanspace
FromWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Ingeometry,Euclideanspaceencompassesthetwodimensional
Euclideanplane,thethreedimensionalspaceofEuclideangeometry,
andcertainotherspaces.ItisnamedaftertheAncientGreek
mathematicianEuclidofAlexandria.[1]Theterm"Euclidean"
distinguishesthesespacesfromothertypesofspacesconsideredin
moderngeometry.Euclideanspacesalsogeneralizetohigher
dimensions.
ClassicalGreekgeometrydefinedtheEuclideanplaneandEuclidean
threedimensionalspaceusingcertainpostulates,whiletheother
propertiesofthesespaceswerededucedastheorems.Geometric
constructionsarealsousedtodefinerationalnumbers.Whenalgebra
andmathematicalanalysisbecamedevelopedenough,thisrelation
reversedandnowitismorecommontodefineEuclideanspaceusing
Everypointinthreedimensional
Cartesiancoordinatesandtheideasofanalyticgeometry.Itmeansthat
Euclideanspaceisdeterminedbythree
pointsofthespacearespecifiedwithcollectionsofrealnumbers,and
coordinates.
geometricshapesaredefinedasequationsandinequalities.This
approachbringsthetoolsofalgebraandcalculustobearonquestions
ofgeometryandhastheadvantagethatitgeneralizeseasilytoEuclideanspacesofmorethanthreedimensions.
Fromthemodernviewpoint,thereisessentiallyonlyoneEuclideanspaceofeachdimension.WithCartesian
coordinatesitismodelledbytherealcoordinatespace(Rn)ofthesamedimension.Inonedimension,thisisthe
reallineintwodimensions,itistheCartesianplaneandinhigherdimensionsitisacoordinatespacewiththree
ormorerealnumbercoordinates.MathematiciansdenotethendimensionalEuclideanspacebyEniftheywishto
emphasizeitsEuclideannature,butRnisusedaswellsincethelatterisassumedtohavethestandardEuclidean
structure,andthesetwostructuresarenotalwaysdistinguished.Euclideanspaceshavefinitedimension.[2]

Contents
1 Intuitiveoverview
2 Euclideanstructure
2.1 Distance
2.2 Angle
2.3 Rotationsandreflections
2.4 Euclideangroup
3 NonCartesiancoordinates
4 Geometricshapes
4.1 Lines,planes,andothersubspaces
4.2 Linesegmentsandtriangles
4.3 Polytopesandrootsystems
4.4 Curves
4.5 Balls,spheres,andhypersurfaces
5 Topology
6 Applications
7 Alternativesandgeneralizations
7.1 Curvedspaces
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EuclideanspaceWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

7.1 Curvedspaces
7.2 Indefinitequadraticform
7.3 Othernumberfields
7.4 Infinitedimensions
8 Seealso
9 Footnotes
10 References
11 Externallinks

Intuitiveoverview
OnewaytothinkoftheEuclideanplaneisasasetofpointssatisfyingcertainrelationships,expressibleintermsof
distanceandangle.Forexample,therearetwofundamentaloperations(referredtoasmotions)ontheplane.Oneis
translation,whichmeansashiftingoftheplanesothateverypointisshiftedinthesamedirectionandbythesame
distance.Theotherisrotationaboutafixedpointintheplane,inwhicheverypointintheplaneturnsaboutthat
fixedpointthroughthesameangle.OneofthebasictenetsofEuclideangeometryisthattwofigures(usually
consideredassubsets)oftheplaneshouldbeconsideredequivalent(congruent)ifonecanbetransformedintothe
otherbysomesequenceoftranslations,rotationsandreflections(seebelow).
Inordertomakeallofthismathematicallyprecise,thetheorymustclearlydefinethenotionsofdistance,angle,
translation,androtationforamathematicallydescribedspace.Evenwhenusedinphysicaltheories,Euclidean
spaceisanabstractiondetachedfromactualphysicallocations,specificreferenceframes,measurement
instruments,andsoon.ApurelymathematicaldefinitionofEuclideanspacealsoignoresquestionsofunitsof
lengthandotherphysicaldimensions:thedistanceina"mathematical"spaceisanumber,notsomethingexpressed
ininchesormetres.Thestandardwaytodefinesuchspace,ascarriedoutintheremainderofthisarticle,isto
definetheEuclideanplaneasatwodimensionalrealvectorspaceequippedwithaninnerproduct.[2]Thereason
forworkingwitharbitraryvectorspacesinsteadofRnisthatitisoftenpreferabletoworkinacoordinatefree
manner(thatis,withoutchoosingapreferredbasis).Forthen:
thevectorsinthevectorspacecorrespondtothepointsoftheEuclideanplane,
theadditionoperationinthevectorspacecorrespondstotranslation,and
theinnerproductimpliesnotionsofangleanddistance,whichcanbeusedtodefinerotation.
OncetheEuclideanplanehasbeendescribedinthislanguage,itisactuallyasimplemattertoextenditsconceptto
arbitrarydimensions.Forthemostpart,thevocabulary,formulae,andcalculationsarenotmadeanymoredifficult
bythepresenceofmoredimensions.(However,rotationsaremoresubtleinhighdimensions,andvisualizinghigh
dimensionalspacesremainsdifficult,evenforexperiencedmathematicians.)
AEuclideanspaceisnottechnicallyavectorspacebutratheranaffinespace,onwhichavectorspaceactsby
translations,or,conversely,aEuclideanvectoristhedifference(displacement)inanorderedpairofpoints,nota
singlepoint.Intuitively,thedistinctionsaysmerelythatthereisnocanonicalchoiceofwheretheoriginshouldgo
inthespace,becauseitcanbetranslatedanywhere.Whenacertainpointischosen,itcanbedeclaredtheorigin
andsubsequentcalculationsmayignorethedifferencebetweenapointanditscoordinatevector,assaidabove.See
pointvectordistinctionfordetails.

Euclideanstructure

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