THE BASIC IDEAS ON NON-EUCLIDEAN GEOMETRY

WHAT IS THE MODULE ALL ABOUT?

This module is designed for you who are enrolled in the course “Modern
Geometry”. This is the first of a series of modules that will help and assist you
become an expert pre-service educator.

YOU WILL STUDY THE FOLLOWING TOPICS IN THIS MODULE:

1. Forerunners of Non-Euclidean Geometry

2. The discovery of Non-Euclidean Geometry
3. Axiomatic Basis of Non-Euclidean Geometry

INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES:

1. Determine the creation of Non-Euclidean Geometry;
2. Identify the forerunners of Non-Euclidean Geometry;
3. Identify the discoveries of Non-Euclidean Geometry;
4. Compare Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometries.

INTRODUCTION
Since the dawn of time, Man has always been concerned to understand the
world he lived in. He observed carefully and accurately the shapes of nature and felt
the need to theorize, and later, to find mathematical proofs for various empirical
elements. If we examine with some attention, in fact, we have a daily need to use
Geometry. When we say something is far away, we are referring to a length and this is
Geometry. When we discuss about the area of a football field, we use Geometry. If we
say that a dress is wide, we are thinking of volumes, and therefore thinking in
Geometry. Geometry accompanies us all the time. One of the most important books
ever written is probably Euclid’s Elements. Its volumes have provided a model for the
rigorous development of mathematical ideas, which is still used today.

The Euclidean Geometry defines the situations of the plan. However, when
we are dealing with different surfaces, we are faced with the impossibility of solving
problems through the same geometry. Unlike what happens with the initial four
postulates of Euclid, the Fifth Postulate, the famous Parallel
Postulate, revealed a lack intuitive appeal, and several were the mathematicians who,
throughout history, tried to show it.

Many retreated before the findings that this would be untrue; some had the
courage and determination to make such a falsehood, thus opening new doors to
Geometry. One puts up, then, two questions. Where can be found the clear concepts
of such Geometries? And how important is the knowledge and study of Geometries,
beyond the Euclidean, to a better understanding of the world around us? The study,
now developed, seeks to answer these questions. Since the primary objective is a
response to these earlier questions, this study is divided into three phases. The first
phase focuses on the historical evolution of Geometry, from its beginnings to the
work of the Greek Euclid. In a second phase, the main precursors of Geometry are
presented and, subsequently, the discoverers of Non-Euclidean Geometries, the
Elliptic and Hyperbolic Geometries themselves, being the most outstanding among all
the non- Euclidean, and even some models of its representations. The third and final
phase is related to the analysis of the presence of Non-Euclidean Geometries in Art
and in the Real, the study of Geometry in Secondary Education and Non- Euclidean
Geometries in Higher Education, ending up with some philosophical implications that
one understands be relevant, given all the controversy generated around these non-
Euclidean theories of Geometry.

The Forerunners of Non-Euclidean Geometries

(The fifth postulate of Euclidean geometry) Several mathematicians tried to

prove the correctness of Euclid‟s 5th Postulate for a long time. Although they could
get close to real conclusions, they failed, as its primary objective was to prove the
Postulate, and not conclude that this could be false (Saccheri, Legendre, Farkas
Bolyai, Gauss). Moreover, even with assurances regarding their results, the fear of
facing the mathematical community, and the shame of being marginalized by their act
of courage, always stopped them from publishing such findings. As Greenberg said, it
is delightfully instructive to observe the mistakes made by capable people as they
struggled with the strange possibility that they or their culture might not accept their
conclusions.
, but it was finally shown to be impossible.

Postulate 5, the Parallel Postulate If a straight line meets two straight lines,
so as to make the two interior angles on the same side of it taken together less than
two right angles, these straight lines, being continuously produced, shall at length
meet on the Alternative, but equivalent, version of the Parallel Postulate Given a line l
and a point P not on l, there is only one-line m containing
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P such that l||m. These alternative versions the most commonly used version, but
there are several others. It is interesting that one of the other equivalent versions is the
statement that “the sum of the angles in a triangle is 180°”. We prove this as a
theorem, and the

Alternative version of the Parallel Postulate will be a very important piece of

the proof. They are equivalent because if you started with the “the sum of angles in
triangle is 180°” you could prove the parallel postulate. All theorems whose proofs
rely on the Parallel Postulate, plus the Absolute Geometry theorems, are what is
known as Euclidean Geometry or Flat Geometry. Euclid's famous treatise, the
Elements, was most probably a summary of side on which are the angles that are less
than two right angle what was known about geometry in his time, rather than being
his original work. In it, he sets out five geometric "postulates", the fifth of which is
this: If a straight line falling on two straight lines make the interior angles on the same
side less than two right angles, the two straight lines, if produced indefinitely, meet on
that side on which are the angles less than the two right angles.

Discovery of non-Euclidean geometry

The beginning of the 19th century would finally witness decisive steps in the
creation of non-Euclidean geometry. Circa 1813, Carl Friedrich Gauss and
independently around 1818, the German professor of law Ferdinand Karl
Schweikart had the germinal ideas of non-Euclidean geometry worked out, but
neither published any results. Then, around 1830, the Hungarian mathematician
János Bolyai and the Russian mathematician Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky
separately published treatises on hyperbolic geometry. Consequently, hyperbolic
geometry is called Bolyai- Lobachevskian geometry, as both mathematicians,
independent of each other, are the basic authors of non-Euclidean geometry. Gauss
mentioned to Bolyai's father, when shown the younger Bolyai's work, that he had
developed such a geometry several years before, though he did not publish. While
Lobachevsky created a non-Euclidean geometry by negating the parallel
postulate, Bolyai worked out a geometry where both the Euclidean and the hyperbolic
geometry are possible depending on a parameter k. Bolyai ends his work by
mentioning that it is not possible to decide through mathematical reasoning alone if
the geometry of the physical universe is Euclidean or non- Euclidean; this is a task for
the physical sciences.

Bernhard Riemann, in a famous lecture in 1854, founded the field of

Riemannian geometry, discussing in particular the ideas now called manifolds,
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Riemannian metric, and curvature. He constructed an infinite family of geometries
which are not Euclidean by giving a formula for a family of Riemannian metrics on
the unit ball in Euclidean space. The simplest of these is called elliptic geometry and
it is considered to be a non-Euclidean geometry due to its lack of parallel lines. By
formulating the geometry in terms of a curvature tensor, Riemann allowed non-
Euclidean geometry to be applied to higher dimensions.

Axiomatic basis of non-Euclidean geometry

Euclidean geometry can be axiomatically described in several ways.

Unfortunately, Euclid's original system of five postulates (axioms) is not one of these
as his proofs relied on several unstated assumptions which should also have been
taken as axioms. Hilbert's system consisting of 20 axioms most closely follows the
approach of Euclid and provides the justification for all of Euclid's proofs. Other
systems, using different sets of undefined terms obtain the same geometry by different
paths. In all approaches, however, there is an axiom which is logically equivalent to
Euclid's fifth postulate, the parallel postulate. Hilbert uses the Playfair axiom form,
while Birkhoff, for instance, uses the axiom which says that:

"there exists a pair of similar but not congruent triangles."

In any of these systems, removal of the one axiom which is equivalent to the
parallel postulate, in whatever form it takes, and leaving all the other axioms intact,
produces absolute geometry. As the first 28 propositions of Euclid (in The Elements)
do not require the use of the parallel postulate or anything equivalent to it, they are all
true statements in absolute geometry. axiom form, since it is a compound statement
(... there exists one and only one
...), can be done in two ways. Either there will exist more than one line through the
point parallel to the given line or there will exist no lines through the point parallel to
the given line. In the first case, replacing the parallel postulate (or its equivalent) with
the statement "In a plane, given a point P and a line ℓ not passing through P, there
exist two lines through P which do not meet ℓ" and keeping all the other axioms, yields
hyperbolic geometry. The second case is not dealt with as easily. Simply replacing the
parallel postulate with the statement, "In a plane, given a point P and a line ℓ not
passing through P, all the lines through P meet ℓ", does not give a consistent set of
axioms. This follows since parallel lines exist in absolute geometry, but this statement
says that there are no parallel lines. This problem was known (in a different guise) to
Khayyam, Saccheri and Lambert and was the basis for their rejecting what was
known as the "obtuse angle case". In order to obtain a consistent set of
axioms which includes this axiom about having no parallel lines, some of the other
axioms must be tweaked. The adjustments to be made depend upon the axiom system
being used. Among others these tweaks will have the effect of modifying Euclid's
second postulate from the statement that line segments can be extended indefinitely to
the statement that lines are unbounded. Riemann's elliptic geometry emerges as the
most natural geometry satisfying this axiom.

To obtain a non-Euclidean geometry, the parallel postulate (or its equivalent)

must be replaced by its negation. Negating the Playfair's axiom form, since it is a
compound statement (..there exists one and only one ...), can be done in two ways.
Either there will exist more than one line through the point parallel to the given line or
there will exist no lines through the point parallel to the given line. In the first case,
replacing the parallel postulate (or its equivalent) with the statement "In a plane, given
a point P and a line ℓ not passing through P, there exist two lines through P which do not
meet ℓ" and keeping all the other axioms, yields hyperbolic geometry. The second case
is not dealt with as easily. Simply replacing the parallel postulate with the statement,
"In a plane, given a point P and a line ℓ not passing through P, all the lines through P
meet ℓ", does not give a consistent set of axioms. This follows since parallel lines exist
in absolute geometry, but this statement says that there are no parallel lines. This
problem was known (in a different guise) to Khayyam, Saccheri and Lambert and was
the basis for their rejecting what was known as the "obtuse angle case". In order to
obtain a consistent set of axioms which includes this axiom about having no parallel
lines, some of the other axioms must be tweaked. The adjustments to be made depend
upon the axiom system being used. Among others these tweaks will have the effect of
modifying Euclid's second postulate from the statement that line segments can be
extended indefinitely to the statement that lines are unbounded. Riemann's elliptic
geometry emerges as the most natural geometry satisfying this axiom.

Activity 1:

Answer the question completely

1. Based on the foregoing lesson, discuss how non-Euclidean geometry was

discovered?
2. Identify the forerunners of non-Euclidean Geometry and identify their
contributions to Geometry.
Comparison of Euclidean geometry and non-Euclidean geometry

A. Euclidean geometry

B. Parabolic geometry

C. Spherical geometry

Euclidean Non- Euclidean

Parabolic geometry Hyperbolic geometry Spherical geometry

Euclid (300 B.C) Lobatchevski , Bloyai G .F .B .Riemann (1850)

(1830)

Euclidean geometry in this The negatively curved non- Spherical geometry is

classification is parabolic Euclidean geometry is called called elliptical geometry,
geometry, hyperbolic geometry but the space of elliptic
through the name is less geometry is really has
often used. points = antipodal pairs on
the sphere.

Euclidean Geometry is what Hyperbolic Geometry can be Elliptic Geometry is

we're familiar with on a day
to day basis and follows
Euclid's Parallel postulate;
given a Straight Line and a
Point not on that Line, there
is only one Line you can
draw that passes through
that Point AND is parallel to
the first Line.
derived from the answer to
Saccheri's Quadrilateral
where the two remaining
angles are smaller than 90
degrees. It's typically only
used to very high level math
and physics and some
models of the universe
revolve around the use of
Hyperbolic Geometry. This
leads to a variation of
Euclid's Parallel Postulate,
and in Hyperbolic Geometry
this new version states; given
a Straight Line and a Point
not on that Line, there are
derived from the last
answer to Saccheri's
Quadrilateral where the
two remaining angles are
larger than 90 degrees.
Unlike Hyperbolic
Geometry, Elliptic
Geometry is widely used
by pilots and ship captains
because it describes the
Geometry on the surfaces
of Spheres. Similar to
Euclidean and
Hyperbolic Geometries, it
too has its own variation on
the original Parallel
Postulate which states;
given a Straight Line and

Euclidean geometry is flat
so its curvature is zero.
5th axiom/parallel axiom:
given a straight line and a
point not on the line, there
exists one and only one
straight line through the
point which is parallel to the
original line.
The sum of the angles of a
triangle is 180 degrees.
Geometry Is on plane:
In Euclidean geometry,
given a point and a line,
there is exactly one line
through the point that is in
the same plane as the given
line and never intersects it.
Definition of a line is
“breadth less length” and
at least two lines parallel to
the initial Line.
Negatively curved
Given a straight line and a
point not on the line. there
exists an infinite number of
straight lines through the
point parallel to the original
line.
The sum of the angles of a
triangle is less than 180
degrees Geometry is on a
pseudo sphere:
In hyperbolic geometry there In spherical geometry
are at least two distinct lines there are no such lines.
that passes through the point
and are parallel to (in the
same plane as and do not
intersect) the given line.
a Point not on that Line,
there are no lines parallel to
the initial Line.
Positively curved
Given a straight line and
the point not on the line,
there are no straight lines
through the point parallel
to the original line.
The sum of the angles of a
triangle is always greater
than 180
degrees. Geometry is on a
sphere:
Lines are defined such
that the shortest distance
a straight line being a line
“which lies evenly with the
points on itself”.
If two lines are parallel to a
third line, then the two
lines are parallel to each
other.
If two lines are parallel
then, two lines are
equidistant
Lines that do not have an
end (infinite lines), also do
not have a boundary (a
point that they are headed
toward, yet never
reach)
Euclidean geometry is
geometry on a plane(like
the surface of a piece of
paper), and deals with
points and lines
In Euclidean geometry . .
. is a triangle
euclidean geometry deals
with more structured
mathematics, such as
triangles.
Euclidean geometry has 1
parallel line through any
given point not on a line
Euclidean geometry is
hold in two dimensions.
This is false in hyperbolic
geometry.
This is false in hyperbolic
geometry.
This is false in hyperbolic
geometry.
Non Euclidean geometry
are on a sphere.
Hyperbolic geometry is
associated with „curved‟
space
In non-Euclidean geometry .
. . is a triangle.
while non-Euclidean
geometry has more abstract
shapes, ones with
no describable, or
permanent name
Hyperbolic geometry has at
least 2 parallel lines
Hold in two and three
dimension.
between two points lies
along them. Lines in
spherical geometry are
great circles. A great
circle is the largest circle
that can be drawn on a
sphere. Great circles are
lines that divide a sphere
into two equal.
Spherical geometry is
plane geometry on the
surface of a sphere. So a
straight line on the
surface of a sphere would
become an arc, and the
longest line would equate
to the
diameter of the sphere.
Spherical geometry has
no parallel lines
Hold in two and three
dimension
Euclidean geometry is
used in surveying and
building
It has simple trigonometry
A modern use of
Hyperbolic geometry is in
the theory of special
Relativity, particularly
minskowski space time
,and gyro vector space
Concepts of spherical
geometry may also be
applied to the oblong
sphere; though minor
modifications must be
implemented on certain
formulas. Two practical
application of the
principal of spherical
geometry are to
navigation and
astronomy
It has spherical
geometry

Activity 2:

In not less than 10 sentences discuss the comparison between

Euclidean and Non-Euclidean geometries.

HYPERBOLIC GEOMETRY

Geometry Except for Euclid’s five fundamental postulates of plane geometry,

which we paraphrase from [Kline 1972], most of the following historical material is
taken from Felix Klein’s book [1928]. Here are Euclid’s postulates in contemporary
language (compare [Euclid 1926]):

1. Each pair of points can be joined by one and only one straight line
segment.

2. Any straight line segment can be indefinitely extended in either

direction.

3. There is exactly one circle of any given radius with any given center.
 4. All right angles are congruent to one another.

5. If a straight line falling on two straight lines makes the interior angles on
the same side less than two right angles, the two straight lines, if extended
indefinitely, meet on that side on which the angles are less than two right
angles.

Of these five postulates, the fifth is by far the most complicated and unnatural.
Given the first four, the fifth postulate can easily be seen to be equivalent to the
following parallel postulate, which explains why the expressions “Euclid’s fifth
postulate” and “the parallel” are often used interchangeably:

“Given a line and a point not on it, there is exactly one line going through the
given point that is parallel to the given line.”

For two thousand years Mathematicians attempted to deduce the fifth postulate
from the four simpler postulates. In each case one reduced the proof of the fifth
postulate to the conjunction of the first four postulates with an additional natural
postulate that, in fact, proved to be equivalent to the fifth:

Proclus (ca. 400 a.d.) used as additional postulate the assumption that the
points at constant distance from a given line on one side form a straight line.

The Englishman John Wallis (1616–1703) used the assumption that to

every triangle there is a similar triangle of each given size.

The Italian Girolamo Saccheri (1667–1733) considered quadrilaterals with

two base angles equal to a right angle and with vertical sides having equal length and
deduced consequences from the (non-Euclidean) possibility that the remaining two
angles were not right angles.

Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728–1777) proceeded in a similar fashion and

wrote an extensive work on the subject, posthumously published in 1786.
 G’ottingen mathematician K’astner (1719–1800) directed a thesis of student
Klugel (1739–1812), which considered approximately thirty proof attempts for the
parallel postulate.

This postulate is to hyperbolic geometry as the parallel postulate is to

Euclidean geometry. Unusual consequences of this change came to be recognized as
fundamental and surprising properties of non-Euclidean geometry: equidistant curves
on either side of a straight line were in fact not straight but curved; similar triangles
were congruent; angle sums in a triangle were not equal to π, and so forth. That the
parallel postulate fails in the models of non-Euclidean geometry that we shall give
will be apparent to the reader. The unusual properties of non-Euclidean geometry that
we have mentioned will all be worked out in Section 13, entitled “Curious facts about
hyperbolic space”.

History has associated five names with this enterprise, those of three
professional mathematicians and two amateurs.

The amateurs were jurist Schweikart and his nephew Taurinus (1794–
1874). By 1816 Schweikart had developed, in his spare time, an “astral geometry”
that was independent of the fifth postulate. His nephew Taurinus had attained a non-
Euclidean hyperbolic geometry by the year 1824.

The professionals were Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855), Nikolaï

Ivanovich Lobachevski (1793–1856), and János (or Johann) Bolyai (1802– 1860).
From the papers of his estate it is apparent that Gauss had considered the parallel
postulate extensively during his youth and at least by the year 1817 had a clear picture
of non-Euclidean geometry. The only indications he gave of his knowledge were
small comments in his correspondence. Having satisfied his own curiosity, he was not
interested in defending the concept in the controversy that was sure to accompany its
announcement. Bolyai’s father Fárkás (or Wolfgang) (1775– 1856) was a student
friend of Gauss and remained in correspondence with him throughout his life. Fárkás
devoted much of his life’s effort unsuccessfully to the proof of the parallel postulate
and consequently tried to turn his son away from its study. Nevertheless, János
attacked the problem with vigor and had constructed the foundations of hyperbolic
geometry by the year 1823. His work appeared in 1832 or 1833 as an appendix to a
textbook written by his father. Lobachevski also developed a non-Euclidean geometry
extensively and was, in fact, the first to publish his findings, in 1829. See [Lobachevski˘ı
1898; Bolyai and Bolyai 1913].

Gauss, the Bolyais, and Lobachevski developed non-Euclidean geometry

axiomatically on a synthetic basis. They had neither an analytic understanding nor an
analytic model of non-Euclidean geometry. They did not prove the consistency of
their geometries. They instead satisfied themselves with the conviction they attained
by extensive exploration in non-Euclidean geometry where theorem after theorem fit
consistently with what they had discovered to date. Lobachevski developed a non-
Euclidean trigonometry that paralleled the trigonometric formulas of Euclidean
geometry. He argued for the consistency based on the consistency of his analytic
formulas. The basis necessary for an analytic study of hyperbolic non-Euclidean
geometry was laid by Leonhard Euler, Gaspard Monge, and Gauss in their studies of
curved surfaces. In 1837 Lobachevski suggested that curved surfaces of constant
negative curvature might represent non-Euclidean geometry. Two years later, working
independently and largely in ignorance of Lobachevski’s work, yet publishing in the
same journal, Minding made an extensive study of surfaces of constant curvature and
verified Lobachevskiı suggestion. Bernhard Riemann (1826–1866), in his vast
generalization [Riemann 1854] of curved surfaces to the study of what are now called
Riemannian manifolds, recognized all of these relationships and, in fact, to some
extent used them as a springboard for his studies. All of the connections among these
subjects were particularly pointed out by Eugenio Beltrami in 1868. This analytic
work provided specific analytic models for non-Euclidean geometry and established
the fact that non- Euclidean geometry was precisely as consistent as Euclidean
geometry itself.

We shall consider in this exposition five of the most famous of the analytic
models of hyperbolic geometry. Three are conformal models associated with the
name of Henri Poincar´e. A conformal model is one for
which the metric is a point-by-point scaling of the Euclidean metric. Poincar´e
discovered his models in the process of defining and understanding Fuchsian,
Kleinian, and general automorphic functions of a single complex variable. The story
is one of the most famous and fascinating stories about discovery and the work of the
subconscious mind in all of science. We quote from [Poincar´e 1908].

The three Hyperbolic models

In the 19th century, mathematicians developed three models of hyperbolic

geometry that can now be interpreted as projections (or maps) of the hyperbolic
surface. Although these models all suffer from some distortion— similar to the way
that flat maps distort the spherical Earth—they are useful individually and in
combination as aides to understand hyperbolic geometry.

In 1869–71 Beltrami and the German mathematician Felix Klein

developed the first complete model of hyperbolic geometry (and first called the
geometry “hyperbolic”). In the Klein-Beltrami model (shown in the figure below),
the hyperbolic surface is mapped to the interior of a circle, with geodesics in the
hyperbolic surface corresponding to chords in the circle. Thus, the Klein-Beltrami
model preserves “straightness” but at the cost of distorting angles. About 1880
the French mathematician Henri Poincaré developed two more models.

In the Poincaré disk model (see figure below), the hyperbolic surface is
mapped to the interior of a circular disk, with hyperbolic geodesics mapping to
circular arcs (or diameters) in the disk that meet the bounding circle at right angles.

In the Poincaré upper half-plane model (see figure below), the

hyperbolic surface is mapped onto the half-plane above the x-axis, with hyperbolic
geodesics mapped to semicircles (or vertical rays) that meet the x- axis at right angles.
Both Poincaré models distort distances while preserving angles as measured by
tangent lines.
 In the Klein-Beltrami model for the hyperbolic plane, the shortest
paths, or geodesics, are chords (several examples, labeled k, l, m, n, are shown).
In the Poincaré disk model, geodesics are portions of circles that intersect the
boundary of the disk at right angles; and in the Poincaré upper half-plane
model, geodesics are semicircles with their centers on the boundary.

The Lorentz model or hyperboloid model employs a 2-dimensional

hyperboloid of revolution (of two sheets, but using one) embedded in 3-
dimensional Minkowski space. This model is generally credited to Poincaré, but
Reynolds (see below) says that Wilhelm Killing and Karl Weierstrass used this
model from 1872.

This model has direct application to special relativity, as Minkowski 3-

space is a model for spacetime, suppressing one spatial dimension. One can take
the hyperboloid to represent the events that various moving observers, radiating
outward in a spatial plane from a single point, will reach in a fixed proper time.
The hyperbolic distance between two points on the hyperboloid can then be
identified with the relative rapidity between the two corresponding observers.