An illustration of Desargues' theorem, an important result in Euclidean and projective

geometry.

Oxyrhynchus papyrus (P.Oxy. I 29) showing fragment of Euclid's Elements

Geometry (Ancient Greek: γεωμετρία; geo- "earth", -metri "measurement") "Earth-

measuring" is a branch of mathematics concerned with questions of shape, size, relative
position of figures, and the properties of space. Geometry is one of the oldest mathematical
sciences. Initially a body of practical knowledge concerning lengths, areas, and volumes, in
the 3rd century BC geometry was put into an axiomatic form by Euclid, whose treatment—
Euclidean geometry—set a standard for many centuries to follow. Archimedes developed
ingenious techniques for calculating areas and volumes, in many ways anticipating modern
integral calculus. The field of astronomy, especially mapping the positions of the stars and
planets on the celestial sphere and describing the relationship between movements of celestial
bodies, served as an important source of geometric problems during the next one and a half
millennia. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is called a geometer.

The introduction of coordinates by René Descartes and the concurrent development of

algebra marked a new stage for geometry, since geometric figures, such as plane curves,
could now be represented analytically, i.e., with functions and equations. This played a key
role in the emergence of infinitesimal calculus in the 17th century. Furthermore, the theory of
perspective showed that there is more to geometry than just the metric properties of figures:
perspective is the origin of projective geometry. The subject of geometry was further
enriched by the study of intrinsic structure of geometric objects that originated with Euler and
Gauss and led to the creation of topology and differential geometry.

In Euclid's time there was no clear distinction between physical space and geometrical space.
Since the 19th-century discovery of non-Euclidean geometry, the concept of space has
undergone a radical transformation, and the question arose which geometrical space best fits
physical space. With the rise of formal mathematics in the 20th century, also 'space' (and
'point', 'line', 'plane') lost its intuitive contents, so today we have to distinguish between
physical space, geometrical spaces (in which 'space', 'point' etc. still have their intuitive
meaning) and abstract spaces. Contemporary geometry considers manifolds, spaces that are
considerably more abstract than the familiar Euclidean space, which they only approximately
resemble at small scales. These spaces may be endowed with additional structure, allowing
one to speak about length. Modern geometry has multiple strong bonds with physics,
exemplified by the ties between pseudo-Riemannian geometry and general relativity. One of
the youngest physical theories, string theory, is also very geometric in flavor.

While the visual nature of geometry makes it initially more accessible than other parts of
mathematics, such as algebra or number theory, geometric language is also used in contexts
far removed from its traditional, Euclidean provenance (for example, in fractal geometry and
algebraic geometry).[1]

Overview

Visual proof of the Pythagorean theorem for the (3, 4, 5) triangle as in the Chou Pei Suan
Ching 500–200 BC.

The recorded development of geometry spans more than two millennia. It is hardly surprising
that perceptions of what constituted geometry evolved throughout the ages.

Practical geometry

Geometry originated as a practical science concerned with surveying, measurements, areas,

and volumes. Among the notable accomplishments one finds formulas for lengths, areas and
volumes, such as Pythagorean theorem, circumference and area of a circle, area of a triangle,
volume of a cylinder, sphere, and a pyramid. A method of computing certain inaccessible
distances or heights based on similarity of geometric figures is attributed to Thales.
Development of astronomy led to emergence of trigonometry and spherical trigonometry,
together with the attendant computational techniques.
Axiomatic geometry

An illustration of Euclid's parallel postulate

Euclid took a more abstract approach in his Elements, one of the most influential books ever
written. Euclid introduced certain axioms, or postulates, expressing primary or self-evident
properties of points, lines, and planes. He proceeded to rigorously deduce other properties by
mathematical reasoning. The characteristic feature of Euclid's approach to geometry was its
rigor, and it has come to be known as axiomatic or synthetic geometry. At the start of the 19th
century the discovery of non-Euclidean geometries by Gauss and others led to a revival of
interest, and in the 20th century David Hilbert employed axiomatic reasoning in an attempt to
provide a modern foundation of geometry.

Geometric constructions

Main article: Compass and straightedge constructions

Ancient scientists paid special attention to constructing geometric objects that had been
described in some other way. Classical instruments allowed in geometric constructions are
those with compass and straightedge. However, some problems turned out to be difficult or
impossible to solve by these means alone, and ingenious constructions using parabolas and
other curves, as well as mechanical devices, were found.

Numbers in geometry

The Pythagoreans discovered that the sides of a triangle could have incommensurable
lengths.
In ancient Greece the Pythagoreans considered the role of numbers in geometry. However,
the discovery of incommensurable lengths, which contradicted their philosophical views,
made them abandon (abstract) numbers in favor of (concrete) geometric quantities, such as
length and area of figures. Numbers were reintroduced into geometry in the form of
coordinates by Descartes, who realized that the study of geometric shapes can be facilitated
by their algebraic representation. Analytic geometry applies methods of algebra to geometric
questions, typically by relating geometric curves and algebraic equations. These ideas played
a key role in the development of calculus in the 17th century and led to discovery of many
new properties of plane curves. Modern algebraic geometry considers similar questions on a
vastly more abstract level.

Geometry of position

Main articles: Projective geometry and Topology

Even in ancient times, geometers considered questions of relative position or spatial

relationship of geometric figures and shapes. Some examples are given by inscribed and
circumscribed circles of polygons, lines intersecting and tangent to conic sections, the Pappus
and Menelaus configurations of points and lines. In the Middle Ages new and more
complicated questions of this type were considered: What is the maximum number of spheres
simultaneously touching a given sphere of the same radius (kissing number problem)? What
is the densest packing of spheres of equal size in space (Kepler conjecture)? Most of these
questions involved 'rigid' geometrical shapes, such as lines or spheres. Projective, convex and
discrete geometry are three sub-disciplines within present day geometry that deal with these
and related questions.

Leonhard Euler, in studying problems like the Seven Bridges of Königsberg, considered the
most fundamental properties of geometric figures based solely on shape, independent of their
metric properties. Euler called this new branch of geometry geometria situs (geometry of
place), but it is now known as topology. Topology grew out of geometry, but turned into a
large independent discipline. It does not differentiate between objects that can be
continuously deformed into each other. The objects may nevertheless retain some geometry,
as in the case of hyperbolic knots.

Geometry beyond Euclid

Differential geometry uses tools from calculus to study problems in geometry.

For nearly two thousand years since Euclid, while the range of geometrical questions asked
and answered inevitably expanded, basic understanding of space remained essentially the
same. Immanuel Kant argued that there is only one, absolute, geometry, which is known to
be true a priori by an inner faculty of mind: Euclidean geometry was synthetic a priori.[2] This
dominant view was overturned by the revolutionary discovery of non-Euclidean geometry in
the works of Gauss (who never published his theory), Bolyai, and Lobachevsky, who
demonstrated that ordinary Euclidean space is only one possibility for development of
geometry. A broad vision of the subject of geometry was then expressed by Riemann in his
inauguration lecture Über die Hypothesen, welche der Geometrie zu Grunde liegen (On the
hypotheses on which geometry is based), published only after his death. Riemann's new idea
of space proved crucial in Einstein's general relativity theory and Riemannian geometry,
which considers very general spaces in which the notion of length is defined, is a mainstay of
modern geometry.

Dimension

Where the traditional geometry allowed dimensions 1 (a line), 2 (a plane) and 3 (our ambient
world conceived of as three-dimensional space), mathematicians have used higher
dimensions for nearly two centuries. Dimension has gone through stages of being any natural
number n, possibly infinite with the introduction of Hilbert space, and any positive real
number in fractal geometry. Dimension theory is a technical area, initially within general
topology, that discusses definitions; in common with most mathematical ideas, dimension is
now defined rather than an intuition. Connected topological manifolds have a well-defined
dimension; this is a theorem (invariance of domain) rather than anything a priori.

The issue of dimension still matters to geometry, in the absence of complete answers to
classic questions. Dimensions 3 of space and 4 of space-time are special cases in geometric
topology. Dimension 10 or 11 is a key number in string theory. Exactly why is something to
which research may bring a satisfactory geometric answer.

Symmetry

A tiling of the hyperbolic plane

The theme of symmetry in geometry is nearly as old as the science of geometry itself. The
circle, regular polygons and platonic solids held deep significance for many ancient
philosophers and were investigated in detail by the time of Euclid. Symmetric patterns occur
in nature and were artistically rendered in a multitude of forms, including the bewildering
graphics of M. C. Escher. Nonetheless, it was not until the second half of 19th century that
the unifying role of symmetry in foundations of geometry had been recognized. Felix Klein's
Erlangen program proclaimed that, in a very precise sense, symmetry, expressed via the
notion of a transformation group, determines what geometry is. Symmetry in classical
Euclidean geometry is represented by congruences and rigid motions, whereas in projective
geometry an analogous role is played by collineations, geometric transformations that take
straight lines into straight lines. However it was in the new geometries of Bolyai and
Lobachevsky, Riemann, Clifford and Klein, and Sophus Lie that Klein's idea to 'define a
geometry via its symmetry group' proved most influential. Both discrete and continuous
symmetries play prominent role in geometry, the former in topology and geometric group
theory, the latter in Lie theory and Riemannian geometry.

A different type of symmetry is the principle of duality in for instance projective geometry
(see Duality (projective geometry)). This is a meta-phenomenon which can roughly be
described as: replace in any theorem point by plane and vice versa, join by meet, lies-in by
contains, and you will get an equally true theorem. A similar and closely related form of
duality appeares between a vector space and its dual space.

Modern geometry

Modern geometry is the title of a popular textbook by Dubrovin, Novikov and Fomenko first
published in 1979 (in Russian). At close to 1000 pages, the book has one major thread:
geometric structures of various types on manifolds and their applications in contemporary
theoretical physics. A quarter century after its publication, differential geometry, algebraic
geometry, symplectic geometry and Lie theory presented in the book remain among the most
visible areas of modern geometry, with multiple connections with other parts of mathematics
and physics.

History of geometry
Main article: History of geometry
Woman teaching geometry. Illustration at the beginning of a medieval translation of Euclid's
Elements, (c.1310)

The earliest recorded beginnings of geometry can be traced to ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt,
and the Indus Valley from around 3000 BCE. Early geometry was a collection of empirically
discovered principles concerning lengths, angles, areas, and volumes, which were developed
to meet some practical need in surveying, construction, astronomy, and various crafts. The
earliest known texts on geometry are the Egyptian Rhind Papyrus and Moscow Papyrus, the
Babylonian clay tablets, and the Indian Shulba Sutras, while the Chinese had the work of
Mozi, Zhang Heng, and the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, edited by Liu Hui.

Until relatively recently (i.e. the last 200 years), the teaching and development of geometry in
Europe and the Islamic world was based on Greek geometry.[3][4] Euclid's Elements (c. 300
BCE) was one of the most important early texts on geometry, in which he presented geometry
in an ideal axiomatic form, which came to be known as Euclidean geometry. The treatise is
not, as is sometimes thought, a compendium of all that Hellenistic mathematicians knew
about geometry at that time; rather, it is an elementary introduction to it;[5] Euclid himself
wrote eight more advanced books on geometry. We know from other references that Euclid’s
was not the first elementary geometry textbook, but the others fell into disuse and were lost.
[citation needed]

In the Middle Ages, mathematics in medieval Islam contributed to the development of

geometry, especially algebraic geometry[6][7][unreliable source?] and geometric algebra.[8] Al-Mahani
(b. 853) conceived the idea of reducing geometrical problems such as duplicating the cube to
problems in algebra.[7] Thābit ibn Qurra (known as Thebit in Latin) (836–901) dealt with
arithmetical operations applied to ratios of geometrical quantities, and contributed to the
development of analytic geometry.[9] Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) found geometric solutions
to cubic equations, and his extensive studies of the parallel postulate contributed to the
development of non-Euclidian geometry.[10][unreliable source?] The theorems of Ibn al-Haytham
(Alhazen), Omar Khayyam and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi on quadrilaterals, including the Lambert
quadrilateral and Saccheri quadrilateral, were the first theorems on elliptical geometry and
hyperbolic geometry, and along with their alternative postulates, such as Playfair's axiom,
these works had a considerable influence on the development of non-Euclidean geometry
among later European geometers, including Witelo, Levi ben Gerson, Alfonso, John Wallis,
and Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri.[11]

In the early 17th century, there were two important developments in geometry. The first, and
most important, was the creation of analytic geometry, or geometry with coordinates and
equations, by René Descartes (1596–1650) and Pierre de Fermat (1601–1665). This was a
necessary precursor to the development of calculus and a precise quantitative science of
physics. The second geometric development of this period was the systematic study of
projective geometry by Girard Desargues (1591–1661). Projective geometry is the study of
geometry without measurement, just the study of how points align with each other.

Two developments in geometry in the 19th century changed the way it had been studied
previously. These were the discovery of non-Euclidean geometries by Lobachevsky, Bolyai
and Gauss and of the formulation of symmetry as the central consideration in the Erlangen
Programme of Felix Klein (which generalized the Euclidean and non Euclidean geometries).
Two of the master geometers of the time were Bernhard Riemann, working primarily with
tools from mathematical analysis, and introducing the Riemann surface, and Henri Poincaré,
the founder of algebraic topology and the geometric theory of dynamical systems. As a
consequence of these major changes in the conception of geometry, the concept of "space"
became something rich and varied, and the natural background for theories as different as
complex analysis and classical mechanics.

Contemporary geometry
Euclidean geometry

The E8 Lie group polytope Coxeter plane projection

Euclidean geometry has become closely connected with computational geometry, computer
graphics, convex geometry, discrete geometry, and some areas of combinatorics. Momentum
was given to further work on Euclidean geometry and the Euclidean groups by
crystallography and the work of H. S. M. Coxeter, and can be seen in theories of Coxeter
groups and polytopes. Geometric group theory is an expanding area of the theory of more
general discrete groups, drawing on geometric models and algebraic techniques.

Differential geometry

Differential geometry has been of increasing importance to mathematical physics due to

Einstein's general relativity postulation that the universe is curved. Contemporary differential
geometry is intrinsic, meaning that the spaces it considers are smooth manifolds whose
geometric structure is governed by a Riemannian metric, which determines how distances are
measured near each point, and not a priori parts of some ambient flat Euclidean space.

Topology and geometry

A thickening of the trefoil knot

The field of topology, which saw massive development in the 20th century, is in a technical
sense a type of transformation geometry, in which transformations are homeomorphisms.
This has often been expressed in the form of the dictum 'topology is rubber-sheet geometry'.
Contemporary geometric topology and differential topology, and particular subfields such as
Morse theory, would be counted by most mathematicians as part of geometry. Algebraic
topology and general topology have gone their own ways.
Algebraic geometry

Quintic Calabi–Yau threefold

The field of algebraic geometry is the modern incarnation of the Cartesian geometry of co-
ordinates. From late 1950s through mid-1970s it had undergone major foundational
development, largely due to work of Jean-Pierre Serre and Alexander Grothendieck. This led
to the introduction of schemes and greater emphasis on topological methods, including
various cohomology theories. One of seven Millennium Prize problems, the Hodge
conjecture, is a question in algebraic geometry.

The study of low dimensional algebraic varieties, algebraic curves, algebraic surfaces and
algebraic varieties of dimension 3 ("algebraic threefolds"), has been far advanced. Gröbner
basis theory and real algebraic geometry are among more applied subfields of modern
algebraic geometry. Arithmetic geometry is an active field combining algebraic geometry and
number theory. Other directions of research involve moduli spaces and complex geometry.
Algebro-geometric methods are commonly applied in string and brane theory.