Dehn Planes - Dehn's Non-Legendrian Geometry

Dehn's Non-Legendrian Geometry

In the same paper, Dehn also constructed an example of a non-Legendrian geometry where there are infinitely many lines through a point not meeting another line, but the sum of the angles in a triangle exceeds π. Riemann's elliptic geometry over Ω(t) consists of the projective plane over Ω(t), which can be identified with the affine plane of points (x:y:1) together with the "line at infinity", and has the property that the sum of the angles of any triangle is greater than π The non-Legendrian geometry consists of the points (x:y:1) of this affine subspace such that tx and ty are finite (where as above t is the element of Ω(t) represented by the identity function). Legendre's theorem states that the sum of the angles of a triangle is at most π, but assumes Archimedes's axiom, and Dehn's example shows that Legendre's theorem need not hold if Archimedes' axiom is dropped.

Read more about this topic:  Dehn Planes

Famous quotes containing the word geometry:

    ... geometry became a symbol for human relations, except that it was better, because in geometry things never go bad. If certain things occur, if certain lines meet, an angle is born. You cannot fail. It’s not going to fail; it is eternal. I found in rules of mathematics a peace and a trust that I could not place in human beings. This sublimation was total and remained total. Thus, I’m able to avoid or manipulate or process pain.
    Louise Bourgeois (b. 1911)