In 

mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based

on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean
geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean
geometry arises by either relaxing the metric requirement, or replacing the parallel
postulate with an alternative. In the latter case one obtains hyperbolic
geometry and elliptic geometry, the traditional non-Euclidean geometries. When the
metric requirement is relaxed, then there are affine planes associated with the planar
algebras, which give rise to kinematic geometries that have also been called non-
Euclidean geometry.
The essential difference between the metric geometries is the nature
of parallel lines. Euclid's fifth postulate, the parallel postulate, is equivalent to Playfair's
postulate, which states that, within a two-dimensional plane, for any given line l and a
point A, which is not on l, there is exactly one line through A that does not intersect l. In
hyperbolic geometry, by contrast, there are infinitely many lines through A not
intersecting l, while in elliptic geometry, any line through A intersects l.
Another way to describe the differences between these geometries is to consider two
straight lines indefinitely extended in a two-dimensional plane that are
both perpendicular to a third line (in the same plane):

 In Euclidean geometry, the lines remain at a constant distance from each

other (meaning that a line drawn perpendicular to one line at any point will
intersect the other line and the length of the line segment joining the points of
intersection remains constant) and are known as parallels.
 In hyperbolic geometry, they "curve away" from each other, increasing in
distance as one moves further from the points of intersection with the
common perpendicular; these lines are often called ultraparallels.
 In elliptic geometry, the lines "curve toward" each other and intersect.
 Background[edit]
 Euclidean geometry, named after the Greek mathematician Euclid, includes
some of the oldest known mathematics, and geometries that deviated from this
were not widely accepted as legitimate until the 19th century.
 The debate that eventually led to the discovery of the non-Euclidean geometries
began almost as soon as Euclid wrote Elements. In the Elements, Euclid begins
with a limited number of assumptions (23 definitions, five common notions, and
five postulates) and seeks to prove all the other results (propositions) in the work.
The most notorious of the postulates is often referred to as "Euclid's Fifth
Postulate", or simply the parallel postulate, which in Euclid's original formulation
is:
 If a straight line falls on two straight lines in such a manner that the interior
angles on the same side are together less than two right angles, then the straight
lines, if produced indefinitely, meet on that side on which are the angles less than
the two right angles.
 Other mathematicians have devised simpler forms of this property. Regardless of
the form of the postulate, however, it consistently appears more complicated
than Euclid's other postulates:
 1. To draw a straight line from any point to any point.
 2. To produce [extend] a finite straight line continuously in a straight line.
 3. To describe a circle with any centre and distance [radius].
 4. That all right angles are equal to one another.
 For at least a thousand years, geometers were troubled by the disparate
complexity of the fifth postulate, and believed it could be proved as a theorem
from the other four. Many attempted to find a proof by contradiction, including Ibn
al-Haytham (Alhazen, 11th century),[1] Omar Khayyám (12th century), Nasīr al-
Dīn al-Tūsī (13th century), and Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri (18th century).
 The theorems of Ibn al-Haytham, Khayyam and al-Tusi on quadrilaterals,
including the Lambert quadrilateral and Saccheri quadrilateral, were "the first few
theorems of the hyperbolic and the elliptic geometries". These theorems along
with their alternative postulates, such as Playfair's axiom, played an important
role in the later development of non-Euclidean geometry. These early attempts at
challenging the fifth postulate had a considerable influence on its development
among later European geometers, including Witelo, Levi ben
Gerson, Alfonso, John Wallis and Saccheri.[2] All of these early attempts made at
trying to formulate non-Euclidean geometry, however, provided flawed proofs of
the parallel postulate, containing assumptions that were essentially equivalent to
the parallel postulate. These early attempts did, however, provide some early
properties of the hyperbolic and elliptic geometries.
 Khayyam, for example, tried to derive it from an equivalent postulate he
formulated from "the principles of the Philosopher" (Aristotle): "Two convergent
straight lines intersect and it is impossible for two convergent straight lines to
diverge in the direction in which they converge."[3] Khayyam then considered the
three cases right, obtuse, and acute that the summit angles of a Saccheri
quadrilateral can take and after proving a number of theorems about them, he
correctly refuted the obtuse and acute cases based on his postulate and hence
derived the classic postulate of Euclid, which he didn't realize was equivalent to
his own postulate. Another example is al-Tusi's son, Sadr al-Din (sometimes
known as "Pseudo-Tusi"), who wrote a book on the subject in 1298, based on al-
Tusi's later thoughts, which presented another hypothesis equivalent to the
parallel postulate. "He essentially revised both the Euclidean system of axioms
and postulates and the proofs of many propositions from the Elements."[4][5] His
work was published in Rome in 1594 and was studied by European geometers,
including Saccheri[4] who criticised this work as well as that of Wallis.[6]
 Giordano Vitale, in his book Euclide restituo (1680, 1686), used the Saccheri
quadrilateral to prove that if three points are equidistant on the base AB and the
summit CD, then AB and CD are everywhere equidistant.
 In a work titled Euclides ab Omni Naevo Vindicatus (Euclid Freed from All
Flaws), published in 1733, Saccheri quickly discarded elliptic geometry as a
possibility (some others of Euclid's axioms must be modified for elliptic geometry
 to work) and set to work proving a great number of results in hyperbolic
geometry.
 He finally reached a point where he believed that his results demonstrated the
impossibility of hyperbolic geometry. His claim seems to have been based on
Euclidean presuppositions, because no logical contradiction was present. In this
attempt to prove Euclidean geometry he instead unintentionally discovered a new
viable geometry, but did not realize it.
 In 1766 Johann Lambert wrote, but did not publish, Theorie der Parallellinien in
which he attempted, as Saccheri did, to prove the fifth postulate. He worked with
a figure now known as a Lambert quadrilateral, a quadrilateral with three right
angles (can be considered half of a Saccheri quadrilateral). He quickly eliminated
the possibility that the fourth angle is obtuse, as had Saccheri and Khayyam, and
then proceeded to prove many theorems under the assumption of an acute
angle. Unlike Saccheri, he never felt that he had reached a contradiction with this
assumption. He had proved the non-Euclidean result that the sum of the angles
in a triangle increases as the area of the triangle decreases, and this led him to
speculate on the possibility of a model of the acute case on a sphere of
imaginary radius. He did not carry this idea any further.[7]
 At this time it was widely believed that the universe worked according to the
principles of Euclidean geometry.[8]
 Discovery of non-Euclidean geometry[edit]
 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[9] had the germinal ideas of non-Euclidean geometry worked out, but
neither published any results. Schweikart's nephew Franz Taurinus did publish
important results of hyperbolic trigonometry in two papers in 1825 and 1826, yet
while admitting the internal consistency of hyperbolic geometry, he still believed
in the special role of Euclidean geometry.[10]
 Then, in 1829–1830 the Russian mathematician Nikolai Ivanovich
Lobachevsky and in 1832 the Hungarian mathematician János Bolyai separately
and independently published treatises on hyperbolic geometry. Consequently,
hyperbolic geometry is called Lobachevskian or 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,[11] 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, Riemannian
metric, and curvature. He constructed an infinite family of non-Euclidean
geometries 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 a non-Euclidean geometry due to its lack of parallel lines.[12]
 By formulating the geometry in terms of a curvature tensor, Riemann allowed
non-Euclidean geometry to apply to higher dimensions. Beltrami (1868) was the
first to apply Riemann's geometry to spaces of negative curvature.