The discovery of hyperbolic geometry, and the subsequent proof that this geometry is just as logical as Euclid's, had a profound in- fluence on man's understanding of mathematics and the relation of mathematical geometry to the physical world. It is now possible, due in large part to axioms devised by George Birkhoff, to give an accurate, elementary development of hyperbolic plane geometry. Also, using the Poincare model and inversive geometry, the equiconsistency of hyperbolic plane geometry and euclidean plane geometry can be proved without the use of any advanced mathematics. These two...
The discovery of hyperbolic geometry, and the subsequent proof that this geometry is just as logical as Euclid's, had a profound in- fluence on man's ...