Syllabus for Classical Geometries. (Math 128 A). Fall, 2016. Prof.

Richard Montgomery
web site: http://people.ucsc.edu/ rmont/classes/ClassicalGeometry/web2016F
PRIMARY TEXTS. 1: Euclid. [on-line versions are fine. If you prefer a print copy, I recommend the
Green Lion Press version.] 2: Class Reader. 3. Various on-line sources
REQUIRED EQUIPMENT: A compass and a straightedge. Geogebra. (free app.)
Evaluations and grade breakdown :
HOMEWORK AND CLASS PRESENTATIONS: 30 % (includes Platonic Solids ).
MIDTERM: 30 %. You must obtain a passing midterm score to pass the course.
FINAL EXAMINATION: 40 % .
Skeleton Calendar. We meet M W F, 01:20PM - 02:25PM, in Phys Sci 110.
September 23. (a Friday) 1st class.
Sept 26 (Mon) 1st HW due.
Oct 3 (Mon) TA covers class. R Mont to Stanford.
Oct 21 (Fri). Midterm.
Nov 4 (Fri). Platonic solids due
Dec 2 (Fri) Last class.
Dec 7 (Wed) Final. Noon to 3 .
OVERVIEW AND GOALS: This course has evolved to fulfill two goals: (A) give students a firm
foundation in Euclidean geometry, and (B) expose students to other geometries, namely projective, spherical
and hyperbolic. The needs of future K-12 math teachers are kept in mind throughout the course, but budding
researchers in computer science, math, physics, astrophysics, chemistry, or even artists should find plenty to
interest and challenge them.
Before the midterm: the class concerns Euclidean plane geometry. Students learn what a construction
means. A student passing the mid-term should be able to teach a useful enjoyable high school geometry course
in the spirit of Euclid, including constructions, on-line tools, and the ability to write down an intelligible
proof in Euclids spirit.
After the midterm: We move out of Euclids plane, into Euclidean space, the projective plane, the
sphere, and the hyperbolic plane. Students build the Platonic Solids which rest in Euclidean space. We
spend some time seeing how far we can get with constructions with only a straightedge and no compass,
so just lines and points, no circles. This is the geometry of the projective plane, originally developed to
understand perspective drawing, and includes a line at infinity which must be added to Euclids plane.
Putting a metric on the projective plane yields elliptic geometry which is almost, but not quite the same
as spherical geometry. To investigate spherical geometry and enter the hyperbolic plane we need to develop
two tools: the arithmetic of complex numbers, and the notion of an element of arclength.
Guiding principles for understanding these other geometries will be Kleins Erlangen program, the fact
that all the isometries of the various geometries can be built out of reflections or out of Mobius transfomations,
and the how and why of the failure or success of Euclids postulates. Inversions about a circle will have
been constructed before the midterm and serve as a bridge between the two halves of the course, following
an approach to hyperbolic geometry espoused by Thurston (ch. 1 of his book Three dimensional geometry
and topology).
CLASS STRUCTURE. Up to and including the midterm this class is a boot camp in Euclidean
Geometry. HW will be due every class for the first week or so, and almost every class after that up to the
midterm. I will require work to be done in class, and all students to give presentations . You must pass
the midterm to pass the course. Particularly after the midterm, the class will occassionally degenerate into
more of the traditional lecture style, however, participation is always encouraged, and sometimes mandatory.
There will be material covered only in class, through discussions.