INTRODUCTION

In the years of my university education (late 1950s), geometry was a basic part of the mathematics curriculum. In those days it was Euclidean geometry followed by projective geometry, both of which I found fascinating. I remember that in those days the books of E. A. Maxwell had a great influence on my learning, particularly his Geometry for Advanced Pupils (Oxford 1949). The imprint of this book will be found in this website, and I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness.

These days, mathematics has moved on, and geometry may hardly appear. It is my hope that this website will stimulate readers to rediscover the enjoyment and interest that was my experience then, and continues today.

Geometry today has expanded into many subclassifications: Euclidean geometry, affine geometry, projective geometry, transformation geometry, finite geometry, fractal geometry, ‘rubber-sheet’ geometry and so on. In these pages we look at planar Euclidean geometry, particularly concentrating on the occurrence of circles. Such a choice is quite arbitrary, but helps provide an interesting subset of the total material available. Perhaps I might feel inspired later to write a second site!

Euclidean geometry starts with axioms and definitions, and proceeds with the development of various deduced theorems. In a work like this we come in ‘in the middle’, so there are various assumptions made. I have tried to cover this using the icon . Clicking on this icon where it appears in the text (and keeping the cursor over it) will open an explanatory window.

I believe there has been no infringement of copyright in the preparation of this site; if some unintentional infringement has occurred, please contact me.

Also, please feel free to contact me if you have comments about this site – positive or negative. I hope you enjoy this geometry experience!

Paul Scott (2008)

mail@paulscott.info