List of things named after Euclid

Last updated

This is a list of topics named after the Greek mathematician Euclid.

Contents

Mathematics

Number theory

Algebra

Geometry

Other

Euclid, Minnesota

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Euclid</span> Ancient Greek mathematician (fl. 300 BC)

Euclid was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the Elements treatise, which established the foundations of geometry that largely dominated the field until the early 19th century. His system, now referred to as Euclidean geometry, involved new innovations in combination with a synthesis of theories from earlier Greek mathematicians, including Eudoxus of Cnidus, Hippocrates of Chios, Thales and Theaetetus. With Archimedes and Apollonius of Perga, Euclid is generally considered among the greatest mathematicians of antiquity, and one of the most influential in the history of mathematics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Euclidean geometry</span> Mathematical model of the physical space

Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry; Elements. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms (postulates) and deducing many other propositions (theorems) from these. Although many of Euclid's results had been stated earlier, Euclid was the first to organize these propositions into a logical system in which each result is proved from axioms and previously proved theorems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of geometry</span> Historical development of geometry

Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers (arithmetic).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Similarity (geometry)</span> Same shape, up to a scaling

In Euclidean geometry, two objects are similar if they have the same shape, or if one has the same shape as the mirror image of the other. More precisely, one can be obtained from the other by uniformly scaling, possibly with additional translation, rotation and reflection. This means that either object can be rescaled, repositioned, and reflected, so as to coincide precisely with the other object. If two objects are similar, each is congruent to the result of a particular uniform scaling of the other.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Euclidean distance</span> Length of a line segment

In mathematics, the Euclidean distance between two points in Euclidean space is the length of a line segment between the two points. It can be calculated from the Cartesian coordinates of the points using the Pythagorean theorem, therefore occasionally being called the Pythagorean distance. These names come from the ancient Greek mathematicians Euclid and Pythagoras, although Euclid did not represent distances as numbers, and the connection from the Pythagorean theorem to distance calculation was not made until the 18th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Non-Euclidean geometry</span> Two geometries based on axioms closely related to those specifying 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. 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.

Euclidean is an adjective derived from the name of Euclid, an ancient Greek mathematician. It is the name of:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elliptic geometry</span> Non-Euclidean geometry

Elliptic geometry is an example of a geometry in which Euclid's parallel postulate does not hold. Instead, as in spherical geometry, there are no parallel lines since any two lines must intersect. However, unlike in spherical geometry, two lines are usually assumed to intersect at a single point. Because of this, the elliptic geometry described in this article is sometimes referred to as single elliptic geometry whereas spherical geometry is sometimes referred to as double elliptic geometry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyperbolic geometry</span> Non-Euclidean geometry

In mathematics, hyperbolic geometry is a non-Euclidean geometry. The parallel postulate of Euclidean geometry is replaced with:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synthetic geometry</span> Geometry without using coordinates

Synthetic geometry is geometry without the use of coordinates. It relies on the axiomatic method for proving all results from a few basic properties initially called postulate, and presently called axioms.

In geometry, parallel lines are coplanar infinite straight lines that do not intersect at any point. Parallel planes are planes in the same three-dimensional space that never meet. Parallel curves are curves that do not touch each other or intersect and keep a fixed minimum distance. In three-dimensional Euclidean space, a line and a plane that do not share a point are also said to be parallel. However, two noncoplanar lines are called skew lines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Absolute geometry</span> Geometry without the parallel postulate

Absolute geometry is a geometry based on an axiom system for Euclidean geometry without the parallel postulate or any of its alternatives. Traditionally, this has meant using only the first four of Euclid's postulates, but since these are not sufficient as a basis of Euclidean geometry, other systems, such as Hilbert's axioms without the parallel axiom, are used. The term was introduced by János Bolyai in 1832. It is sometimes referred to as neutral geometry, as it is neutral with respect to the parallel postulate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sum of angles of a triangle</span> Fundamental result in geometry

In a Euclidean space, the sum of angles of a triangle equals the straight angle . A triangle has three angles, one at each vertex, bounded by a pair of adjacent sides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of geometry</span> Overview of and topical guide to geometry

Geometry 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.

In geometry, the Beckman–Quarles theorem states that if a transformation of the Euclidean plane or a higher-dimensional Euclidean space preserves unit distances, then it preserves all Euclidean distances. Equivalently, every homomorphism from the unit distance graph of the plane to itself must be an isometry of the plane. The theorem is named after Frank S. Beckman and Donald A. Quarles Jr., who published this result in 1953; it was later rediscovered by other authors and re-proved in multiple ways. Analogous theorems for rational subsets of Euclidean spaces, or for non-Euclidean geometry, are also known.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geometry</span> Branch of mathematics

Geometry is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is called a geometer. Until the 19th century, geometry was almost exclusively devoted to Euclidean geometry, which includes the notions of point, line, plane, distance, angle, surface, and curve, as fundamental concepts.

Foundations of geometry is the study of geometries as axiomatic systems. There are several sets of axioms which give rise to Euclidean geometry or to non-Euclidean geometries. These are fundamental to the study and of historical importance, but there are a great many modern geometries that are not Euclidean which can be studied from this viewpoint. The term axiomatic geometry can be applied to any geometry that is developed from an axiom system, but is often used to mean Euclidean geometry studied from this point of view. The completeness and independence of general axiomatic systems are important mathematical considerations, but there are also issues to do with the teaching of geometry which come into play.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pythagorean theorem</span> Relation between sides of a right triangle

In mathematics, the Pythagorean theorem or Pythagoras' theorem is a fundamental relation in Euclidean geometry between the three sides of a right triangle. It states that the area of the square whose side is the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares on the other two sides. This theorem can be written as an equation relating the lengths of the sides a, b and the hypotenuse c, often called the Pythagorean equation:

The Alexandrov uniqueness theorem is a rigidity theorem in mathematics, describing three-dimensional convex polyhedra in terms of the distances between points on their surfaces. It implies that convex polyhedra with distinct shapes from each other also have distinct metric spaces of surface distances, and it characterizes the metric spaces that come from the surface distances on polyhedra. It is named after Soviet mathematician Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov, who published it in the 1940s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parallel postulate</span> Geometric axiom

In geometry, the parallel postulate, also called Euclid's fifth postulate because it is the fifth postulate in Euclid's Elements, is a distinctive axiom in Euclidean geometry. It states that, in two-dimensional geometry:

If a line segment intersects two straight lines forming two interior angles on the same side that are less than two right angles, then the two lines, if extended indefinitely, meet on that side on which the angles sum to less than two right angles.

References

  1. "Place name detail: Mount Euclid". New Zealand Gazetteer. New Zealand Geographic Board . Retrieved 21 August 2022.