Scribd
Upload
83 views

Spherical Geometry: Boryana Tsareva

Spherical geometry is the study of geometric objects located on the surface of a sphere. It works similarly to Euclidean geometry, but lines are actually great circles and it has some non-Euclidean features. While long studied for navigation and astronomy, spherical geometry differs from planar geometry as spheres and planes are geometrically different. It was historically important but was not sufficient to fully resolve problems in geometry like the parallel postulate.

Uploaded by

Boryana Tsareva
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
83 views

Spherical Geometry: Boryana Tsareva

Spherical geometry is the study of geometric objects located on the surface of a sphere. It works similarly to Euclidean geometry, but lines are actually great circles and it has some non-Euclidean features. While long studied for navigation and astronomy, spherical geometry differs from planar geometry as spheres and planes are geometrically different. It was historically important but was not sufficient to fully resolve problems in geometry like the parallel postulate.

Uploaded by

Boryana Tsareva
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

SPHERICAL

GEOMETRY
Boryana Tsareva
Overview
◦ Spherical geometry is the study of geometric objects located on the surface of a sphere. Spherical geometry works similarly to
Euclidean geometry in that there still exist points, lines, and angles. For instance, a "line" between two points on a sphere is
actually a great circle of the sphere, which is also the projection of a line in three-dimensional space onto the sphere.
◦ Spherical geometry is the geometry of the two-dimensional ◦ Because a sphere and a plane differ geometrically, (intrinsic)
surface of a sphere. In this context the word "sphere" refers only spherical geometry has some features of a non-Euclidean
to the 2-dimensional surface and other terms like "ball" or "solid geometry and is sometimes described as being one. However,
sphere" are used for the surface together with its 3-dimensional spherical geometry was not considered a full-fledged non-
interior. Euclidean geometry sufficient to resolve the ancient problem of
whether the parallel postulate is a logical consequence of the rest
of Euclid's axioms of plane geometry. The solution was found
◦ Long studied for its practical applications to navigation and instead in hyperbolic geometry.
astronomy, spherical geometry bears many similarities and
relationships to, and important differences from, Euclidean plane
geometry. The sphere has for the most part been studied as a part
of 3-dimensional Euclidean geometry (often called solid
geometry), the surface thought of as placed inside an ambient 3-
d space. It can also be analyzed by "intrinsic" methods that only
involve the surface itself, and do not refer to, or even assume the
existence of, any surrounding space outside or inside the sphere.
History
◦ Greek antiquity
The earliest mathematical work of antiquity to come down to our time is On the rotating sphere by Autolycus of Pitane, who
lived at the end of the fourth century BC.Spherical trigonometry was studied by early Greek mathematicians such as
Theodosius of Bithynia, a Greek astronomer and mathematician who wrote the Sphaerics, a book on the geometry of the
sphere, and Menelaus of Alexandria, who wrote a book on spherical trigonometry called Sphaerica and developed Menelaus'
theorem.
◦ Islamic world
The Book of Unknown Arcs of a Sphere written by the Islamic mathematician Al-Jayyani is considered to be the first treatise on
spherical trigonometry. The book contains formulae for right-handed triangles, the general law of sines, and the solution of a
spherical triangle by means of the polar triangle.
The book On Triangles by Regiomontanus, written around 1463, is the first pure trigonometrical work in Europe. However,
Gerolamo Cardano noted a century later that much of its material on spherical trigonometry was taken from the twelfth-
century work of the Andalusi scholar Jabir ibn Aflah.
THE END

You might also like