THE ORIGINS OF

GEOMETRY
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, the first- year students of BSED–
Mathematics should be able:

to explore knowledge of the origins of geometry;

to appreciate the historical significance of geometry in
rational discourse and intellectual development; and
to explain the origins of each concept of geometry.
Geometry
• can be traced to early people who discovered obtuse
triangles from around 3000 BC in the ancient Indus
Valley and ancient Babylonia.
• It came from the ancient Greek terms geo meaning
"earth" and metron meaning "measurement."
• It was a topic focused on the study of shapes, sizes,
relative configurations, and spatial properties.
The Babylonians of 2,000 to 1,600 BC

• They knew much about navigation and

astronomy, which required knowledge of
geometry.
• Clay tablets from the Sumerian (2,100 BC) and
the Babylonian Culture (1,600 BC) include
tables for computing products, reciprocals,
squares, square roots, and other mathematical
functions useful in financial calculations.
• They were able to compute areas of rectangles, right and
isosceles triangles, trapezoids, and circles.
• They computed the area of a circle as the square of the
circumference divided by twelve.
• They were also responsible for dividing the circumference
of a circle into 360 equal parts. 
• They also used the Pythagorean Theorem, performed
calculations involving ratio and proportion, and studied the
relationships between the elements of various triangles.
HISTORY OF PI ()
Pi
• Pi is a Greek symbol which is used in various
formulae, and Archimedes was able to derive
the value of Pi using his exceptional intellect.
• Various applications of Pi have been seen in
mathematics, such as working out the area of
a circle.
The Ancient Babylonians
•They calculated the area of a circle by taking 3 times the square
of its radius, which gave a value of pi = 3.

The Rhind Papyrus

•It gives us insight into the mathematics of ancient
Egypt. The Egyptians calculated the area of a circle by a
formula that gave the approximate value of 3.1605 for .
The First Calculation of 
 It was done by Archimedes of Syracuse.
• He approximated the area of a circle by using the
Pythagorean Theorem to find the areas of two
regular polygons:
 the polygon inscribed within the circle
 the polygon within which the circle was
circumscribed
 Archimedes showed that  is between 3 1/7 and 3 10/71.
Zu Chongzhi (429–501)
•He calculated the value of the ratio of the circumference
of a circle to its diameter to be .
•To compute this accuracy for , he must have started
with an inscribed regular 24,576-gon and performed
lengthy calculations involving hundreds of square roots
carried out to 9 decimal places.
The Greek letter 
• Mathematicians began using it during 1700s.
• It was introduced by William Jones in 1706.
• The use of the symbol was popularized by
Leonhard Euler who adopted it in 1737.
Egyptian Geometry
CLASSICAL GREEK
GEOMETRY
Thales of Miletus (624–547 BC)

He is credited with proving the findings below:

• A circle is bisected by any diameter.
• The base angles of an isosceles
triangle are equal.
• The angles between the two
intersecting straight lines are equal.
• Two triangles are congruent if they
have two angles and one side equal.
• An angle inscribed in a semicircle
is a right angle.
Pythagoras of Samos (569–475 BC)

The Pythagoreans added a few

new axioms to the store of
geometrical knowledge.
•The sum of the internal angles of a triangle equals two right angles (180).
•The sum of the external angles of a triangle equals four right angles (360).
•The sum of the interior angles of any polygon equals 2n-4 right angles, where n is
the number of sides.
•The sum of the exterior angles of a polygon equals four right angles, however many
sides.
•The three polygons, the triangle, hexagon, and square completely fill the space
around a point on plane-six triangles, four squares, and three hexagons. In other
words, you can tile an area with these three shapes, without leaving gaps or having
overlaps.
•For a right-angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of
the squares of the other two sides.
Euclid
• He was the father of geometry.
• The next great advancement in geometry
came from him in 300 BC when he wrote
a text titled 'Elements.'
Euclidian Geometry
•A straight line segment can be drawn joining any two points.
•A straight line segment can be extended indefinitely in a straight line.
•Given any straight line segment, a circle can be drawn having the segment
as radius and one endpoint as center.
•All right angles are congruent.
•If two lines are drawn which intersect a third line in such a way that the
sum of the inner angles on one side is less than two right angles, then the
two lines inevitably must intersect each other on that side if extended
infinitely.
Archimedes of Syracuse
• He perfected the methods of integration
and devised formulae to calculate the areas
of many shapes and the volumes of many
solids. He often used the method of
exhaustion to uncover formulae.
• He also showed that the volume of a sphere
is two thirds the volume of a cylinder with
the same height and radius.
Apollonius of Perga (262 - 190 BCE)
• Famous for his conic sections
• He is credited with inventing the
words ellipse, parabola, and
hyperbola, and is often referred to
as the Great Geometer.
René Descartes' Coordinate Geometry
• Its creation opened the doors to the development
of calculus and physics.
Non-Euclidean Geometry
Spherical Geometry
The five axioms for spherical geometry are:
• Any two points can be joined by a straight line.
• Any straight line segment can be extended indefinitely in
a straight line.
• Given any straight line segment, a circle can be drawn
having the segment as radius and one endpoint as center.
• All right angles are congruent.
• There are NO parallel lines.
Hyperbolic Geometry
The following are the five axioms for hyperbolic geometry.
• Any two points can be joined by a straight line.
• Any straight line segment can be extended indefinitely in a
straight line.
• Given any straight line segment, a circle can be drawn having
the segment as radius and one endpoint as center.
• All right angles are congruent.
• Through a point not on a given straight line, infinitely many
lines can be drawn that never meet the given line.
The 20th Century
 developments in algebraic geometry
 André Weil,
 Alexander Grothendieck
 and Jean-Pierre Serre

 Finite geometry
 With the advent of the computer, new disciplines
such as computational geometry or digital geometry
deal with geometric algorithms, discrete
representations of geometric data, and so on.
Assessment
TEST I. MULTIPLE CHOICE
Choose the letter of the correct answer.
Answer every question in 15 seconds.
1. It was a name for an Egyptian surveyor.

A. Arpedonaptai C. Harpedoneptei
B. Harpedonaptai D. Harpodenaptai
2. He carried out the first calculation of .

A. Thales C. Euclid
B. Archimedes D. Apollonius
3. They were extremely accurate in their construction,
making the right angles in the Great Pyramid of Giza
to one part in 27,000.

A. Egyptians C. Greeks
B. Babylonians D. Islamic scholars
4. He was the father of geometry.

A. Thales C. Euclid
B. Archimedes D. Apollonius
5. The following are based on Euclid’s five postulates except
one.
A. A straight line segment can be drawn joining any two
points.
B. An angle inscribed in a semicircle is a right angle.
C. A straight line segment can be extended indefinitely in a
straight line.
D. All right angles are congruent.
6. He was credited with inventing the words ellipse,
parabola, and hyperbola, and is often referred to as
the Great Geometer.
A. Thales C. Euclid
B. Archimedes D. Apollonius
7. It is the way how the ancient Babylonians calculated the area of
a circle.

A. By the formula that gave the approximate value of 3.1605 for 

B. By using the Pythagorean Theorem
C. By starting with an inscribed regular 25,576-gon and performed
lengthy calculations
D. By taking 3 times the square of its radius
8. Its creation opened the doors to the development of
calculus and physics.
A. Coordinate Geometry C. Pi
B. Right Triangle D. Conic Sections
TEST II. ESSAY
In at least four sentences, explain the
historical significance of geometry.