Geometry Dr.

Perdue

Notes from Axiomatic System Discussion

Geometry, like many branches of mathematics, did not simply fall from the sky in its
present, completed form. Instead, mathematicians of the past made it up! They were able to make
up everything we now know to be geometry based on certain rules. In essence, geometry is based
upon a set of rules that govern an “axiomatic system.” The first, and most famous, mathematician
to make up a geometry axiomatic system was Euclid. However, he was not the only one! Two others,
Riemann & Lobachevsky, also created geometry systems. Unfortunately, their systems are rarely
taught in high school and most people are ignorant of their very existence. Axiomatic systems
consist of 4 parts: undefined terms, definitions, axioms (also known as postulates), and theorems.
Undefined terms are just that, undefined. They are words that can be used based on an
intuitive understanding of them (in Euclid’s system, he used three of them: point, line, & plane).
These terms are given, we do not have to define them, prove them, or do anything else to use them.
Definitions are given to introduce new terms. Definitions must use terms that are
previously defined or undefined. Example #1, once Euclid has “point” as an undefined term, he can
DEFINE the term “between” to describe a point in relation to two other points. Example #2, once
Euclid has “point” and “line” as undefined terms and “between” as a defined term, he could then
DEFINE “line segment” in terms of those terms (a “line segment” is the portion of a line that is
between two given points).
Axioms or postulates are the third part to an axiomatic system. These are statements
about the undefined & defined terms that are assumed to be true. They are just given; they do
not need to be proven. In Euclid’s system, he had 5 axioms. An example of one of them is “A plane
consists of at least 3 points.” Basically, he had to make this assumption because he needed two
points to make up a line and he needed a point not on the line to get things like perpendicular lines.
Another example was Euclid’s 5th postulate, also known as his parallel postulate. This was the most
controversial of all because it claimed the existence and uniqueness of parallel lines. It was stated
like this: “Given a line and a point not on the line, there is one and only one line that is parallel to
the given line and passes through the given point.” The interesting thing is that those other two
mathematicians mentioned earlier, Riemann and Lobachevsky, used all the same parts of Euclid’s
axiomatic system in their systems with the exception of Euclid’s 5th postulate. Basically, where
Euclid claimed existence & uniqueness, one of them (Riemann) claimed they (parallel lines) didn’t
exist at all and the other (Lobachevsky) claimed they did exist but were not unique (in other words,
there were more than one line parallel to a given line passing through a given point). See the
exploration mentioned in Chapter 13 of your text for more details about this.
The last part to an axiomatic system is the theorems. Theorems are statements about the
undefined & defined terms that must be proven true. The way they are proven is by using the four
methods of logical reasoning we’ve learned (M.P., M.T., L.C. and L.S.) or will learn (if we’re not that
far yet in class). The interesting thing about the three types of geometries is that because of
that different axiom (assumption) that each of them makes, certain things that we believe are
true all the time are no longer. For example, it’s only in Euclid’s geometry that the sum of the
interior angles of a triangle is exactly equal to 180 degrees. In the other two, that sum is either
always greater than or always less than 180 degrees. Many other theorems are drastically
different as well.