Math 302 - Elementary geometry from an advanced point of view

Lectures

Here you can find what has been done in the lectures, and from time to time also what is planned for upcoming lectures.

Monday December 8th.

Section 24.3, 24.4 Hyperbolic Parallel Postulate. Closed triangles. Defect of a triangle. The angle sum in a triangle is less than 180 degrees. Every similarity is a congruence. There exists triangles with arbitrarily small angle sums.

Friday December 5th.

Review session Plane separation postulate (Robyn), Crossbar theorem (Renee), SAS (Neel), SSS (Naoto), Saccheri quadrilateral (Peter and Andrew), Euclidean parallel postulate (Daniel).

Wednesday December 3rd.

Section 24.2 Critical parallelism.

Monday December 1st.

Sections 24.1, 24.2 The all-or-none theorem. Open triangles and critically parallel rays.

Friday November 28th.

Thanksgiving break No class.

Wednesday November 26th.

Thanksgiving break No class.

Monday November 24th.

Discussion of problems from Friday.

Friday November 21st.

Problem session Existence of rectangles.

Handout Problems.

Wednesday November 19th.

Section 24.1 The Critical function.

Monday November 17th.

In-class Exam Covering everything in the course up to now (essentially the first 12 chapters of the book, with less emphasis on chapters 1, 8 and 9).

Friday November 14th.

Section 9.2 Models for hyperbolic geometry.

Wednesday November 12th.

The Reflection Postulate implies SAS.

Handout Postulates and Theorems. This list (without the page and date references) will be available to you during the exam.

Monday November 10th.

Section 12.3 The Pythagorean Theorem.

Handout Discussion of problems from Friday

Friday November 7th.

Problem session The Angle Sum Postulate, and its equivalence to the Euclidean Parallel Postulate.

Handout Problems.

Wednesday November 5th.

Section 12.2 Similarities between triangles.

Monday November 3rd.

Sections 11.3, 11.4, 12.1 The comparison theorem. The basic similarity theorem. Parallel projections preserve ratios. Proportionalities.

Friday October 31st.

Sections 11.1, 11.2 Trapezoids, parallelograms, and rhombuses. Parallel projections.

Wednesday October 29th.

Section 11.1 The Euclidean Parallel Postulate. The angle sum in a triangle equals 180. Rectangles

Monday October 27th.

Sections 1.8, 10.3, 10.4 Archimedean postulate for real numbers. Upper base of a Saccheri quadrilateral. The angle sum of a triangle is less than or equal to 180.

Friday October 24th.

Problem session The angle sum in a triangle is less than 270. Decomposition of triangles.

Handout Problems.

Wednesday October 22nd.

Sections 10.2, 10.3 The polygonal inequality. Saccheri quadrilaterals.

Monday October 20th.

Sections 7, 10.1 The Hinge theorem. The hypotenuse-leg theorem. Parallel lines. Transversals.

Friday October 17th.

Fall break No class

Wednesday October 15th.

Chapter 7 Existence of parallels. Geometric inequalities, including the triangle inequality.

Monday October 13th.

Sections 6.2, 7, 6.5 Angle bisector. Exterior angles. SAA-theorem. Existence of perpendiculars.

Friday October 10th.

Section 6.2 Isosceles triangles. ASA- and SSS-theorems.

Wednesday October 8th.

Section 6.1 Discussion of what is lacking in our postulate system. Congruence of triangles. SAS Postulate.

Monday October 6th.

In-class Exam Covering everything in the course up to now (essentially the first 5 chapters of the book, and our examples of models).

Handout Problems.

Friday October 3rd.

Problem session The dependence of the Protractor Postulate on our earlier postulates. Big protractors.

Handout Problems.

Wednesday October 1st.

Chapter 5 Some consequences of the Protractor Postulate.

Handout Postulates and Theorems. This list (without the page and date references) will be available to you during the exam.

Monday September 29th.

Chapter 5 The Protractor Postulate.

Friday September 26th.

Section 4.4 Convex quadrilaterals.

Wednesday September 24th.

Section 4.2, 4.3 Incidence theorems. The crossbar theorem.

Monday September 22nd.

Section 4.1, 4.2 The equivalence of the Plane Separation Postulate and Pasch's Postulate. Incidence theorems

Handout Discussion of problems from Friday

Friday September 19th.

Problem session The equivalence of the Plane Separation Postulate and Pasch's Postulate.

Handout Problems

Article The Origins of Modern Axiomatics: Pasch to Peano by H. C. Kennedy

Wednesday September 17th.

Section 4.1, 4.2 The Plane Separation Postulate. Incidence theorems.

Monday September 15th.

Section 3.6, 4.1 Congruence of line segments. Convexity.

Friday September 12th.

Section 3.5, 3.6 Definitions of line segments, rays, angles and triangles. Congruence of line segments.

Wednesday September 10th.

Section 3.4 Betweenness theorems (postulates).

Monday September 8th.

Section 3.4 Discussion of problems from Friday. Definition of betweenness.

Handout Discussion of problems from Friday

Friday September 5th.

Problem session Distance functions and coordinate systems for different models. The triangle inequality does not follow from the ruler postulate.

Handout Problems

Wednesday September 3rd.

Section 3.3 The ruler postulate.

Handout Models of Plane Incidence Geometry

Monday September 1st.

Labor Day No class

Friday August 29th.

Chapter 2 Models of incidence geometry.

Wednesday August 27th.

Chapter 2 Introduction to the course. Plane incidence postulates.

Handout Course information