Non - Euclidean Geometry

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 replacing the parallel postulate with an alternative, or relaxing the metric
requirement. In the former case, one obtains hyperbolic geometry and elliptic geometry,
the traditional non-Euclidean geometries.
1. Elliptic Geometry (Bernhard Riemann, German)
Elliptic Geometry is the study of curved surfaces. It is also called Riemannian or
spherical geometry. The study of Riemannian geometry has a direct connection to our
daily existence since we live on a curved surface called planet Earth.
2. Hyperbolic Geometry (Nicholas Lobachevsky, Russian)
Hyperbolic geometry is the study of a saddle-shaped space. It is also called saddle
geometry or Lobachevskian geometry. It has applications to certain areas of science
such as the orbit prediction of objects within intense gradational fields, space travel, and
astronomy.

Personalities associated with Non-Euclidean Geometries

Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevskii (1792-1856), a russian mathematician was one of the
first to found an internally consistent system of non-Euclidean geometry. His
revolutionary ideas had profound implications for theoretical physics, especially the
theory of relativity

Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855)

Gauss was probably the first to perceive that a consistent geometry could
be built up independent of Euclid’s fifth postulate, and he derived many relevant
propositions, which, however, he promulgated only in his teaching and
correspondence. The earliest published non-Euclidean geometric systems were
the independent work of two young men from the East who had nothing to lose
by their boldness. Both can be considered Gauss’s disciples. Carl Friedrich Gauss was
apparently the first to arrive at the conclusion that no contradiction may be obtained this
way. In a private letter of 1824 Gauss wrote:

“ The assumption that (in a triangle) the sum of the three angles
is less than 180° leads to a curious geometry, quite different from
ours, but thoroughly consistent, which I have developed to my entire
satisfaction.”
From another letter of 1829, it appears that Gauss was hesitant to publish
his research because he suspected the mediocre mathematical community
would not be able to accept a revolutionary denial of Euclid's geometry. Gauss
invented the term "Non-Euclidean Geometry" but never published anything on
the subject. On the other hand, he introduced the idea of surface curvature on
the basis of which Riemann later developed Differential Geometry that served as
a foundation for Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.

Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728–77)

One of the followers of Gauss, a Swiss-German polymath, observed that

based on the acute hypothesis, the area of a triangle is the negative of that of a
spherical triangle. Since the latter is proportional to the square of the radius, r,
the former appeared to Lambert to be the area of an imaginary sphere with
radius ir, where i = Square root of √−1.

Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky and János Bolyai

Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky (1792–1856), who learned his mathematics from a close
friend of Gauss’s at the University of Kazan, where Lobachevsky later became a
professor The first published account of hyperbolic geometry, in Russian. Lobachevsky
developed his ideas from an analytical (trigonometric) viewpoint. and János Bolyai
(1802–60), an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army whose father also was a friend of
Gauss’s. Both Lobachevsky and Bolyai had worked out their novel geometries by 1826.
Lobachevsky and Bolyai built their geometries on the assumption (C): through a point
not on the line there exists more than 1 parallel to the line. This is equivalent to Gauss'
assumption that the sum of angles in a triangle is less than 180°.

Girolamo Saccheri (1667–1733)

Girolamo Saccheri,a Jesuit professor of mathematics at the University of Pavia, Italy,

substantially advanced the age-old discussion by setting forth the alternatives in great
clarity and detail before declaring that he had “cleared Euclid of every defect” (Euclides
ab Omni Naevo Vindicatus, 1733). Euclid’s fifth postulate runs: “If a straight line falling
on two straight lines makes the interior angles on the same side less than two right
angles, the straight lines, if produced indefinitely, will meet on that side on which are the
angles less than two right angles.” The other possibility, viz., that no two lines are
parallel was dismissed by Saccheri as contradicting the second postulate. Saccheri, as
all the others, assumed (probably, correctly) that Euclid had in mind exactly this
interpretation: straight lines may be extended so as to have infinite length. On the way
to this spurious demonstration, Saccheri established several theorems of non-Euclidean
geometry—example of that is according to whether the right, obtuse, or acute
hypothesis is true, the sum of the angles of a triangle respectively equals, exceeds, or
falls short of 180°. He then destroyed the obtuse hypothesis by an argument that
depended upon allowing lines to increase in length indefinitely. If this is disallowed, the
hypothesis of the obtuse angle produces a system equivalent to standard spherical
geometry, the geometry of figures drawn on the surface of a sphere.

Riemann and Klein

The next example of what we could now call a ‘non-euclidean’ geometry was given by
Riemann. A lecture he gave which was published in 1868, two years after his death,
speaks of a ‘spherical’ geometry in which every line through a point P not on a line AB
meets the line AB. Here, no parallels are possible. Also, in 1868, Eugenio Beltrami
wrote a paper in which he put forward a model called a ‘pseudo-sphere’. B.Riemann
(1854) was the first to notice that, although meant by Euclid, this interpretation does not
necessarily follow from the postulate: A piece of straight line may be extended
indefinitely. Riemann wrote: “we must distinguish between unboundedness and infinite
extent ... The unboundedness of space possesses ... a greater empirical certainty than
any external experience. But its infinite extent by no means follows from this. “ Circles
can be extended indefinitely since they have no ends. ("Going in circles" means exactly
this: doing something repeatedly without appearing to achieve a certain end or with no
end in sight.) However, circles are of finite extent. Implicit in the first postulate - A
straight line may be drawn between any two points - was the assumption that such a
line is unique. So Riemann modified Euclid's Postulates 1, 2, and 5 to
1. Two distinct points determine at least one straight line.
2. A straight line is boundless.
5. Any two straight lines in a plane intersect.
In this inaugural address Riemann outlined the basic ideas underlying Elliptic Geometry.
It was the simplest example of what are now called Riemannian geometries. In 1871,
Klein completed the ideas of non-euclidean geometry and gave the solid underpinnings
to the subject. He shows that there are essentially three types of geometry

References:
https://www.cut-the-knot.org/triangle/pythpar/Drama.shtml#:~:text=Gauss%20(17
77%2D1855)%2C,discovery%20of%20non%2DEuclidean%20geometries.
https://www.britannica.com/science/non-Euclidean-geometry
http://math.ucdenver.edu/~wcherowi/courses/m3210/lecchap9.pdf