Topics in Geometry

MATH 348 TOPICS IN GEOMETRY
Course Outline, Lecture Notes, Further Reading, Assignments, Tests & Examinations
C0
D
X
Y
E
H
A0
A
Norman Do
May 3 to June 1
Summer 2010
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Mathematics and Statistics

Faculty of Science
McGill University
CONTENTS
Contents
0
COURSE OUTLINE
EUCLIDEAN GEOMETRY
1.1
Euclids Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2
Triangles and Circles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17
1.3
Triangle Centres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
30
1.4
Geometric Gems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
40
SYMMETRY IN GEOMETRY
50
2.1
Isometries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
50
2.2
Symmetry and Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
59
2.3
Symmetry in the Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
71
2.4
Crystals, Friezes and Wallpapers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
83
POLYHEDRA, GRAPHS AND SURFACES
93
3.1
From Polyhedra to Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
93
3.2
Platonic Solids and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
3.2
Surfaces and Topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.4
The Classification of Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
TILING AND DISSECTION
111
125
4.1
Tiling Rectangles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
4.2
Scissors Congruence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
FURTHER READING
142
ASSIGNMENTS, TESTS AND EXAMINATIONS
146
Assignment 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Assignment 1 Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Assignment 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Assignment 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Sample Midterm Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Sample Midterm Test Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Midterm Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Midterm Test Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1
211
CONTENTS
Sample Final Examination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Final Examination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
0. COURSE OUTLINE
General Information
COURSE
SEMESTER
PREREQUISITE
CREDITS
MATH 348 Topics in Geometry

Summer 2010 Section 001
MATH 133 or equivalent or permission of instructor
3.000
INSTRUCTOR
OFFICE
TELEPHONE
EMAIL
OFFICE HOURS
Norman Do
Burnside Hall 1125
514 398 2998
ndo@math.mcgill.ca
Tue 1400-1500, Thu 14001500 or by appointment
CLASSROOM
CLASS HOURS
Burnside Hall 1B24

Mon 11051325, Tue 11051325, Wed 11051325, Thu 11051325
Monday 3 May to Tuesday 1 June except for Monday 24 May
http://www.math.mcgill.ca/ndo/MATH-348.html
WEBPAGE
Learning Outcomes
I hope that, by the end of the course, students should
understand all of the topics in geometry described below;
know a little about some of the major players in mathematical history;
appreciate the mysterious notions of theorem and proof; and
think that maths is awesome.
Instructional Method
The course includes 16 sessions, each one lasting for an epic 140 minutes. These will generally consist of a
lecture in which I talk about the course material, a tutorial in which we talk about solving maths problems,
and some much needed break in between.
Course Materials
There is no required textbook for the course, so you can save your hard-earned money. Instead, I will publish
concise notes of varying quality after each lecture on the course website, outlining the content of the lecture.
However, these in no way constitute a replacement for going to the lectures. At various stages throughout
the course, I might suggest books or websites which reinforce and/or complement the material delivered in
lectures. The course website, which will also include electronic copies of any handouts, can be found at the
following URL.
http://www.math.mcgill.ca/ndo/MATH-348.html
0. COURSE OUTLINE
Assignments and Evaluation

Your evaluation for this course will be based on assignments, a test, and an examination.
Assignments
There will be three assignments, each graded out of 20. You are not discouraged from talking about
assignment problems with other students, but every solution that you hand in must be your own
work.1 Every page submitted should clearly indicate your name, your student number, the course
number, and the assignment number.2 Late assignments will not be accepted, unless under particularly
extreme circumstances.
Assignment 1 will be handed out at the end of class on Tuesday 4 May and is due at 11:00am on
Tuesday 11 May. It will test the material delivered in lectures 1.1 to 1.4.
Test
There will be a test graded out of 40. You will not be allowed to use calculators, computers, notes, or
other aids. No provision will be made for a student who is absent on the day of the test.
The test will occur in class on Thursday 20 May.
It will test the material delivered in lectures 1.1 to 3.3.
Examination
The examination will be graded out of 100. You will not be allowed to use calculators, computers, notes,
or other aids. There will not be a supplemental examination in this course.
The examination will occur on Wednesday 2 June or Thursday 3 June.
It will test the material delivered in lectures 1.1 to 4.4.
Your final mark will consist of
50% examination + 30% assignments + 20% test
OR
100% examination,
whichever is greater. Your final grade will be a letter grade based on your final mark.
Course Content
We will be looking at the following four rather different topics in geometry.
Euclidean Geometry
Polyhedra, Graphs and Surfaces
Symmetry in Geometry
Tiling and Dissection
In an ideal world, we would be able to cover all of the course content outlined below. More realistically, we
might have to deviate from the plan a little, depending on time constraints and student response.
1 McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must understand the meaning and consequences of
cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures. Please see
www.mcgill.ca/students/srr/honest/ for more information.
2 In accord with McGill Universitys Charter of Students Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or in
French any written work that is to be graded.
0. COURSE OUTLINE
1. EUCLIDEAN GEOMETRY
Mon 3 May
Tue 4 May
Wed 5 May
Thu 6 May
1.1. Euclids Elements. . . in which we start at the very beginning, where Euclid started,
with the axioms and build the world of geometry
1.2. Triangles and Circles. . . in which we study two of the most basic and fundamental
objects of geometry namely, triangles and circles
1.3. Triangle Centres. . . in which we discover that the humble triangle has at least four
very special points, each with very special properties
1.4. Geometric Gems. . . in which we use our geometric knowledge to discover wondrous
things before returning to the very beginning, where Euclid started, with the axioms
2. SYMMETRY IN GEOMETRY
Mon 10 May
Tue 11 May
Wed 12 May
Thu 13 May
2.1. Isometries. . . in which we learn the mathematics of flipping, sliding, turning and
gliding, as well as what this all has to do with symmetry
2.2. Symmetry and Groups. . . in which we begin with the simple notion of symmetry
and end with the abstract algebraic notion of a group
2.3. Symmetry in the Plane. . . in which we examine symmetry in the plane and prove a
theorem of Leonardo da Vinci
2.4. Crystals, Friezes and Wallpapers. . . in which we consider the symmetry of crystals,
friezes those long decorations found where the wall meets the ceiling and wallpapers
3. POLYHEDRA, GRAPHS AND SURFACES
Mon 17 May
Tue 18 May
Wed 19 May
Thu 20 May
3.1. From Polyhedra to Graphs. . . in which we glue together polygons to make polyhedra
and introduce the notion of a graph
3.2. Platonic Solids and Beyond. . . in which we hunt down the Platonic solids and see
that theres more to life than polyhedra
3.3. Surfaces and Topology. . . in which we define the notion of a hole, discover the
mysterious one-sided surfaces and play with the rubbery world of topology
3.4. The Classification of Surfaces. . . in which we hunt down all of the surfaces and then
consider what its like to live in three dimensions
4. TILING AND DISSECTION
Tue 25 May
Wed 26 May
Thu 27 May
Mon 31 May
4.1. Tiling Rectangles. . . in which we decide whether or not a rectangle can be tiled with
smaller shapes, using coloured pencils and other tricks
4.2. Scissors Congruence. . . in which we explore the seemingly simple notions of area
and volume with the help of scissors and glue
4.3. Tiling the Plane. . . in which we find shapes which tile the plane and encounter some
crazy aperiodic tilings
4.4. My Favourite Problems. . . in which we see a handful of my favourite problems in
geometry, both solved and unsolved
REVIEW
Tue 1 June
Review
1.1. Euclids Elements
Reductionism for Dummies

Today, Wikipedia told me that reductionism is an approach to understand the nature of complex things by
reducing them to the interactions of their parts, or to simpler or more fundamental things. Here are two
examples of reductionism at work which you may or may not be familiar with.
Prime factorisation
The Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic says that every positive integer can be constructed by
multiplying prime numbers together. In fact, it even tells us that, for every positive integer, there is
really only one way to do this. So we can reduce every positive integer to its prime factorisation, which
acts like a fingerprint for that number. You probably know that one way to find the prime factorisation
of a number is to write down its factor tree, like Ive done below for 48 = 2 2 2 2 3.
48
8
3
4
2
6
2
So in this case, the fundamental things are the prime numbers and it turns out that there are infinitely
many of them. The oldest known proof of this fact is a beautiful piece of thinking by a guy named
Euclid who lived a really really long time ago.
Physics
To understand the universe, it makes sense to explore the stuff that we observe this is called
matter. Quite a while back, we discovered that matter is made up of molecules and, a little bit later, that
molecules are made up of atoms. These atoms are, in turn, made up of smaller particles like electrons,
neutrons and protons. And more recently, physicists have found that these particles are made up of
tiny tiny things called quarks. There are six different flavours of quark known as up, down, charm,
strange, top, and bottom.
In this overly simplistic view of physics, the fundamental things are the quarks and it turns out that
there are only finitely many of them. I should mention that, even more recently still, some physicists
believe that quarks are actually just incredibly tiny pieces of vibrating string.
Wheres the Geometry?

So what does all this have to do with geometry? Well, suppose that youre trying to convince me of the
simple geometric fact that all three angles in an equilateral triangle are 60 . Your argument would probably
look something like this. . .
First, you might use the fact that the base angles in an isosceles triangle are equal. But the
equilateral triangle is isosceles all three ways, so this means that all three angles are equal to
each other. And then you might invoke the well-known fact that the angles in a triangle always
add up to 180 . Since you now know that the three angles in an equilateral triangle are equal and
add up to 180 , every single one of them must be 60 , and youre done.
6
Now imagine that Ive been listening really carefully to your argument, but that Im not a particularly
intelligent nor knowledgeable individual.3 In this purely hypothetical world, I probably dont know that
the base angles in an isosceles triangle are equal. Nor would I believe the well-known fact that the angles
in a triangle always add up to 180 . So you would have to prove these facts to me as well. And then in the
process of proving these, you would probably use even more basic geometric facts and I would complain
that I have never heard of them before, and on and on it goes. But where does it all end?
Of course, the game ends once youve broken the proof down into geometric facts which are so simple that I
must know them to be true. What are these fundamental things in geometry? Do you need infinitely many
of them or only finitely many of them? And if the answer is finitely many, then just how many do you need
exactly?
Euclids Elements
The fundamental things, the LEGO blocks, the basic truths from which we build up all of geometry or
any mathematical theory, in fact are called axioms. The interesting thing about axioms is that you simply
cannot prove them, so you just have to assume that theyre true.
The first person to successfully apply the reductionist approach to mathematics was a rather clever guy by
the name of Euclid, whom Ive already mentioned. He was a Greek mathematician who lived around 300 BC
and is most famous for his series of thirteen books known as the Elements. Even though youve probably
never heard of them, theyre some of the most successful and influential books ever written, even more so
than the Harry Potter or Twilight series. For example, Euclids Elements is supposed to be second only to
the Bible in the number of editions published. In fact, it was used as the basic text on geometry throughout
the Western world for over two millennia, up until around one hundred years ago. In those days, if you
didnt know Euclids Elements, then people didnt think that you were well-educated. So to stop people from
thinking that were ignorant, lets have a look at Book 1 of Euclids Elements, the most famous of them all.
Axioms and Common Notions

In Book 1, Euclid states ten axioms from which he deduces everything that he knows about geometry. So
thankfully, unlike the reductionist approach applied to prime factorisation, there are only finitely many
fundamental things. If there had been infinitely many, then Euclid would never have been able to write
them all down.
The five main axioms of Euclidean geometry which are often referred to as postulates are stated below.
Ive taken some licence in paraphrasing Euclids old-fashioned Ancient Greek into more modern English.
A1. You can draw a unique line segment between any two given points.
A2. You can extend a line segment to produce a unique line.
A3. You can draw a unique circle with a given centre and a given radius.
A4. Any two right angles are equal to each other.
A5. Suppose that a line ` meets two other lines, making two interior angles on one side of ` which sum to
less than 180 . Then the two lines, when extended, will meet on that side of `.
3 Of
course, this is going to be a very difficult thing for you to imagine, but please try.
a
these lines will meet on this
side of ` if a + b < 180
`
b
Euclid supplemented these with another set of five axioms of a slightly different nature, which we refer to as
common notions.
C1. If A = C and B = C, then A = B.
C2. If A = X and B = Y, then A + B = X + Y.
C3. If A = X and B = Y, then A B = X Y.
C4. If A and B coincide, then A = B.
C5. The whole of something is greater than a part of something.
Surely you agree that each of these ten axioms is so obvious that its self-evident. Essentially, Euclid was
declaring his ten axioms to be the rules of the game from which he would build the world of Euclidean
geometry. To really appreciate Euclids work, you have to remember that before he entered the picture,
geometry consisted of a bunch of useful rules, like the fact that a triangle with side lengths 3, 4, 5 has a right
angle. You knew a fact like this was true because if you made a triangle with these side lengths out of rope
and used it as a protractor, then the home that you were building for your family would appear to be vertical.
Euclid came along and said that if you believe my ten axioms and Im pretty sure that you all do then I
can show by logic alone that you have to believe the more complicated things that Im going to talk about. In
this way, Euclid shows us what it means exactly for a theorem in mathematics to be true. In the remainder of
Book 1, Euclid proceeds to deduce, one by one, forty-eight propositions, the proof of each one depending
only on the axioms and on previously proven propositions.
The First Few Propositions

In the timeless words of Maria von Trapp from The Sound of Music, Lets start at the very beginning, a very
good place to start. To make digesting the proofs a little easier, Ill write which axiom or proposition Im
using to deduce each statement. Its generally a good habit when youre constructing geometry proofs or
any proofs, as a matter of fact to provide reasoning for every single statement that you write down.
Proposition (Proposition I). Given a line segment, you can draw an equilateral triangle on it.
C
Proof. Let AB be the given line segment.

Draw the circle with centre A and radius AB. [A3]
Now draw the circle with centre B and radius BA. [A3]
If the circles meet at a point C, then draw the line segments CA and CB. [A1]
Since A is the centre of one circle, AC = AB. And since B is the centre of the other circle, BC = BA. But
these two statements together imply that AC = BC. [C1]
So the line segments AB, BC, CA are all equal which simply means that triangle ABC is equilateral.
Hopefully, you can appreciate that this is a fully rigorous proof and that its pretty hard to find fault with any
single part of it. Because for every statement written down, Euclid can assert its truth, merely by pointing to
one of his axioms. In some sense, Euclids axioms are like the ten commandments, and thou shalt not argue
with them. One down and forty-seven to go. . .
Proposition (Proposition II). Given a line segment and a point, you can draw a line segment from the given point,
equal in length to the given line segment.
C
D
B
A
H
E
Proof. Let A be the given point and BC the given line segment.
Draw the line segment AB. [A1]
Now draw the equilateral triangle DAB. [P1]
Extend the line segments DA and DB to obtain lines DE and DF. [A2]
Draw the circle with centre B and radius BC and let it meet DF at G. [A3]
Now draw the circle with centre D and radius DG and let it meet DE at H. [A3]
Since D is the centre of a circle, we know that DH = DG. And because we constructed DA = DB, we
may now subtract to obtain DH DA = DG DB, or equivalently, AH = BG. [C3]
Since B is the centre of a circle, we know that BC = BG. So we can deduce that AH = BC. [C1]
One thing youve probably noticed is that these propositions are ridiculously simple and seem pretty obvious.
Youve hopefully also noticed that it takes some ingenuity to prove them using only the axioms.
9
Proposition (Proposition III). Given two line segments of unequal lengths, you can divide the longer one into two
parts, one of which is equal in length to the shorter one.
E
C
D
B
Proof. Let AB and CD be the two given line segments, where the longer one is AB.
Draw the line segment AE equal to the line segment CD. [P2]
Draw the circle with centre A and radius AE and let it meet AB at F. [A3]
This means that AE = AF, but we also know that AE = CD, so we can deduce that AF = CD. [C1]
Therefore, we have divided AB into two parts using the point F, one of which is equal to CD.
Hopefully, youre getting the hang of things now. . .
Proposition (Proposition IV). If two triangles have two pairs of equal sides and the angles formed by these sides are
equal, then the two triangles are congruent in other words, they have the same side lengths and the same angles.
Proof. Let the two triangles be ABC and DEF, where AB = DE, AC = DF and BAC = EDF. Place
triangle ABC so that A coincides with D and the line AB coincides with the line DE. Since AB = DE, it
must be the case that B coincides with E. The equal angles BAC = EDF guarantee that the line AC will
coincide with the line DF while the equal lengths AC = DF guarantee that C will coincide with F.
The line segment BC must now coincide with the line segment EF. [A1]
Therefore, we know that BC = EF. [C4]
Furthermore, the angles of triangle ABC coincide with the angles of triangle DEF, so ABC = DEF
and ACB = DFE. [C4]
We now know that triangles ABC and DEF are congruent.
10
Pons Asinorum
We now come to Euclids fifth proposition from Book 1 of his Elements, a proposition which has historically
been given the nickname Pons Asinorum. If youre well-versed in Latin, youll know that this means the
Bridge of the Asses. Why is it called this? One reason that has been proposed is that the diagram used in
the proof looks like a steep bridge which can be crossed by an ass but not by the fuller-figured horse. The
more commonly accepted reason is that this proposition is the first real test of intelligence. At this point,
the intelligent people are able to cross over to the harder propositions while the unintelligent asses get left
behind. So that we dont feel like unintelligent asses, lets now try to understand Euclids fifth proposition.
Proposition (Proposition V Pons Asinorum). In an isosceles triangle, the base angles are equal and the angles
under the base angles are equal.
A
Proof. Let the isosceles triangle be ABC, where AB = AC.

Extend the sides AB and AC to produce the lines AD and AE, respectively. [A2]
Now choose a random point F on BD and let the point G divide the segment AE in such a way that
AF = AG. [P3]
Draw the line segments FC and GB. [A1]
Since AF = AG and AB = AC, the two line segments FA and AC are equal to the two line segments
GA and AB, respectively. They also make a common angle FAC = GAB. So the two triangles AFC
and AGB are congruent. [P4]
We know that AB = AC, but also that AF = AG, so we can subtract to obtain AF AB = AG AC.
Of course, this is the same thing as BF = CG. [C3]
Remember that we already have FC = GB. So the two line segments BF and FC are equal to the two
line segments CG and GB, respectively. Weve also shown that CGB = BFC, so triangle BFC is
congruent to triangle CGB. [P4]
Hence, we have the equal angles ABG = ACF as well as the equal angles CBG = BCF. After
subtracting, we obtain ABG CBG = ACF BCF or, equivalently, ABC = ACB, which are
the base angles. [C3]
Furthermore, weve already shown that FBC = GCB, which are precisely the angles under the base
angles.
11
Pythagoras Theorem
Now that Ive led you over the Pons Asinorum, it seems like a reasonably safe assumption that if you had
enough time and energy, you could understand the rest of Euclids Book 1. Rather than spend our time
working through the remaining propositions, lets fast forward to the second last proposition in Euclids
Book 1, a theorem which you should already know and love.
Proposition (Proposition XLVII Pythagoras Theorem). In a right-angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse
is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.
D
L
B
M
Proof. Let ABC be the right-angled triangle with BAC = 90 .

Draw the square BDEC on BC, the square AGFB on AB, and the square CKH A on CA. [P46]
Draw the line segment AL parallel to BD, where L lies on DE. [P31]
Draw the line segments AD and FC. [A1]
Since BAC = BAG = 90 , the line segment CG passes through A and, similarly, the line segment
BH passes through A. [P14]
Note that CBD = FBA, so adding ABC to both sides, we obtain ABD = FBC. [C2]
We also have BD = BC and AB = FB, so triangles ABD and FBC are congruent. [P4]
The parallelogram BDLM is twice the area of triangle ABD because they have the same base BD and
lie between the same parallel lines BD and AL. [P41]
The square AGFB is twice the area of triangle FBC because they have the same base FB and are between
the same parallel lines FB and GC. [P41]
Thus, the parallelogram BDLM is equal in area to the square AGFB. In a similar fashion, we can deduce that
the parallelogram CELM is equal in area to the square CKH A. Thus, the area of the square BDEC is equal to
the sum of the areas of the two squares AGFB and CKH A exactly what we set out to prove.
12
Of course, Euclids proof of Pythagoras Theorem relies on all sorts of propositions that we havent seen
yet. So, for the sake of begin complete, here is a list of all forty-eight propositions from Book 1 of Euclids
Elements.
Euclids Propositions
P1. Given a line segment, you can draw an equilateral triangle on it.
P2. Given a line segment and a point, you can draw a line segment from the given point, equal in length to
the given line segment.
P3. Given two line segments of unequal lengths, you can divide the longer one into two parts, one of which
is equal in length to the shorter one.
P4. If two triangles have two pairs of equal sides and the angles formed by these sides are equal, then the
two triangles are congruent in other words, they have the same side lengths and the same angles.
P5. In an isosceles triangle, the base angles are equal and the angles under the base angles are equal.
P6. If a triangle has two equal angles, then the two sides opposite these angles are equal.
P7. Given a triangle ABC, there is no other point P on the same side of AB as C such that AC = AP and
BC = BP.
P8. If two triangles have three pairs of equal sides, then they also have three pairs of equal angles.
P9. Given a right angle, you can draw a line which bisects it.
P10. Given a line segment, you can draw its midpoint.
P11. Given a line and a point on that line, you can draw another line perpendicular to the given line and
passing through the given point.
P12. Given a line and a point not on the line, you can draw another line perpendicular to the given line and
passing through the given point.
P13. If a line intersects another line, then it creates two angles which sum to 180 .
P14. Given a point on a line, if two line segments drawn from the point lie on opposite sides of the line and
form adjacent angles which sum to 180 , then the line segments lie on a line.
P15. If two lines meet, then the two vertical angles are equal.
P16. In any triangle, if one of the sides is extended, then the exterior angle formed is greater than either of
the two interior opposite angles.
P17. In any triangle, the sum of any two angles is less than 180 .
P18. In any triangle, the angle opposite the longest side is the largest.
P19. In any triangle, the side opposite the largest angle is the longest.
P20. In any triangle, the sum of any two sides is longer than the remaining side.
P21. If P is a point inside triangle ABC, then AP + BP < AC + BC and APB > ACB.
P22. Given three line segments, it is possible to draw a triangle whose sides are equal in length to the given
line segments whenever the sum of any two is longer than the remaining one.
P23. Given an angle and a line with a point on it, you can draw a line passing through the given point which
creates an angle with the given line equal to the given angle.
13
P24. If two triangles have two pairs of equal sides and the angle formed by these two sides is larger in one
triangle, then the third side is longer in that triangle.
P25. If two triangles have two pairs of equal sides and the third side is longer in one triangle, then the angle
formed by these two sides is larger in that triangle.
P26. If two triangles have two pairs of equal angles and one pair of corresponding equal sides, then the two
triangles are congruent.
P27. If a line meets two lines and forms equal alternate angles, then the two lines are parallel.
P28. If a line meets two lines and forms an exterior angle equal to the interior opposite angle on the same
side, or the sum of the interior angles on the same side is equal to 180 , then the lines are parallel.
P29. If a line meets two parallel lines, then alternate angles are equal, the exterior angle is equal to the
interior opposite angle, and the interior angles on the same side sum to 180 .
P30. Lines parallel to the same line are also parallel to each other.
P31. Given a line and a point, you can draw a line through the given point parallel to the given line.
P32. In any triangle, if one of the sides is extended, then the exterior angle formed equals the sum of the two
interior opposite angles, and the sum of the three interior angles of the triangle equals 180 .
P33. Line segments which join the ends of equal parallel line segments are equal and parallel.
P34. In a parallelogram, opposite sides and angles are equal to each other, and the diagonals bisect the area.
P35. Parallelograms with the same base and equal heights have equal areas.
P36. Parallelograms with equal bases and equal heights have equal areas.
P37. Triangles with the same base and equal heights have equal areas.
P38. Triangles with equal bases and equal heights have equal areas.
P39. Triangles with equal areas and the same base have equal heights.
P40. Triangles with equal areas and equal bases have equal heights.
P41. If a parallelogram has the same base and equal height with a triangle, then the parallelogram is twice
the area of the triangle.
P42. Given an angle and a triangle, you can draw a parallelogram with area equal to the area of the given
triangle and with one angle equal to the given angle.
P43. Consider a point on the diagonal of a parallelogram. If lines are drawn through this point parallel
to the sides of the parallelogram, then four triangles and two parallelograms are formed. The two
parallelograms have equal area.
P44. Given a triangle, a line segment and an angle, you can draw a parallelogram on the line segment with
one angle equal to the given angle and with area equal to the area of the given triangle.
P45. Given a polygon and an angle, you can draw a parallelogram with one angle equal to the given angle
and with area equal to the area of the given polygon.
P46. You can draw a square on a given line segment.
P47. In a right-angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other
two sides.
P48. If the square of one side of a triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides, then the
triangle is right-angled.
14
The Problem with Reductionism

At this point, were going to leave Euclids Elements behind and make our own way through the world of
geometry. We do this for three main reasons.
So far, we have followed Euclids reductionist approach and carefully proved the first five of his
propositions. At this rate, it would take us more than half the course to finish Book 1 of the Elements
and wed still have twelve books left to go. As Willy Wonka from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
once said, So much time and so little to do! Strike that, reverse it.
To be honest, I think that working through the remainder of Book 1 of Euclids Elements would not
only be incredibly laborious, but also excruciatingly boring.
Whenever you get too involved in the reductionist approach, you run the risk of missing the bigger
picture. For example, it is far from true that a physicist who unlocks the mysteries of the tiny tiny quarks
and strings has a grasp of the universe around them. They would still have no further knowledge
about topics such as beauty, music, linguistics, hockey and personal hygiene, to name a few. I think we
should take a broader overview of geometry, whereas if we continued with Euclid, we would not see the
forest for the trees.
Still, there is great beauty in Euclids work, but it doesnt lie in the individual propositions themselves. It lies
in the fact that the reductionist approach lets us truly understand what it means for a mathematical theorem
to be true, the fact that the Elements was the paradigm of mathematical rigour for centuries upon centuries,
and the fact that Euclid has done a lot of the dirty work for us and we can use his results as a stepping stone
to look at some much more interesting facets of geometry.
Problems
At the end of each lecture, Ill usually state a couple of example problems and solve them, to help you learn
how to approach problems in geometry. However, Im going to end todays lecture with the are-you-smarterthan-Euclid challenge.
Problem. As I mentioned earlier, Euclids fifth proposition otherwise known as Pons Asinorum is the first real
test of intelligence in Euclids Elements. This is because Euclids proof is relatively long and intricate. However, if you
look at the first four propositions very carefully, you might notice that these can be used to give a much slicker proof to
the Pons Asinorum. Try to find the proof that Euclid missed and write it out carefully.
15
Euclid
As I mentioned earlier, Euclid was a Greek mathematician who lived a really really long time ago around
300 BC, to be precise. But we cant be any more precise than that, because theres very little known about
Euclids life. In fact, its been stated that any of the
following three possibilities may be the actual truth
about Euclid.
Euclid was a person who wrote the Elements
as well as various other works which are attributed to him.
Euclid led a team of mathematicians in Alexandria, who all contributed to writing the complete works of Euclid, even continuing after Euclid died.
Euclid was entirely fictional and his complete
works were written by a team of mathematicians in Alexandria who borrowed the name
of Euclid from an actual person Euclid of
Megara who had lived about 100 years earlier.
Most people who arent conspiracy theorists tend to
believe the first possibility, in which case Euclid was
a very clever guy indeed. He has quite rightly been
referred to as the Father of Geometry. You might
16
be wondering, if we dont even know whether or not

Euclid existed, then why is there a picture of him
studying geometry below? Well, this particular portrait is just the product of an artists imagination.
1.2. Triangles and Circles
Warming Up with Parallel Lines

Now that weve decided to leave Euclids Elements behind us, lets embark on a much less-detailed, though
far more exciting, geometric journey. Well warm up with a fact about parallel lines Euclid proved it, but
well assume it.
Proposition. If a line meets two parallel lines and you label one angle x as shown in the diagram below, then you can
label all eight angles as shown.
180 x x
x 180 x
180 x x
x 180 x
Basic Facts about Triangles

Now its time for some basic facts about triangles, facts which you should know like the back of your hand
and be able to use when solving geometry problems.
The angles in a triangle add up to 180 .
If a triangle ABC satisfies AB = AC, then ABC = ACB. On the other hand, if a triangle ABC
satisfies ABC = ACB, then AB = AC. If this is true, then we say that the triangle is isosceles, a word
which comes from the Greek words iso, meaning same, and skelos, meaning leg.
The area of a triangle is given by
height of the triangle.
1
2
b h, where b denotes the length of the base and h denotes the
You might be wondering why we care so much about triangles. One reason is because a triangle is the
simplest shape which encloses a region that you can draw using only straight line segments. Such shapes
of which triangles, quadrilaterals and pentagons are examples are usually called polygons. In fact, we
can consider triangles to be the fundamental things which we can glue together to build any polygon. For
example, if you wanted to know what the sum of the angles are in a quadrilateral, then you could simply
draw one of its diagonals to split it up into two smaller triangles. Each triangle on its own has angles which
add to 180 so together, their angles add to 360 . Since the angles of the individual triangles account for all of
the angles in the quadrilateral, we have shown that every quadrilateral has angles which add to 360 . This
trick doesnt just work for quadrilaterals though, as we will now see.
Proposition. In a polygon with n sides, the angles add to (n 2) 180 .
Proof. We already saw that a quadrilateral can be cut along a diagonal into two triangles. If you draw a
pentagon, you will notice that it can be cut along diagonals into three triangles. And if you draw a hexagon,
you will notice that it can be cut along diagonals into four triangles. In general, a polygon with n sides can be
cut along diagonals into n 2 triangles. This is not a particularly easy fact to prove, so well just take it for
granted.
17
The figure above shows what you might get if you try this at home. Of course, each triangle on its own has
angles which add to 180 so together, their angles add to (n 2) 180 . Since the angles of the individual
triangles account for all of the angles in the polygon, we now know that every polygon with n sides has
angles which add to (n 2) 180 .
Congruence and Similarity

Congruence and similarity are two of the most important notions in geometry. We say that two shapes are
congruent if it is possible to pick one of them up and place it precisely on top of the other one. On the other
hand, we say that two shapes are similar if it is possible to pick one of them up, enlarge or shrink it by a
certain factor, and then place it precisely on top of the other one. If the triangles ABC and XYZ are congruent,
then we write this using the shorthand ABC
= XYZ and if they are similar, then we write this using the
shorthand ABC XYZ. When we use this notation, we always mean that the first vertex from one triangle
corresponds to the first vertex from the other, the second vertex from one triangle corresponds to the second
vertex from the other, and the third vertex from one triangle corresponds to the third vertex from the other.
There are four simple rules to determine whether or not two triangles are congruent. Each one comes with a
catchy TLA4 which should hopefully be self-explanatory.
SSS (side-side-side)
If ABC and XYZ are two triangles such that AB = XY, BC = YZ and CA = ZX, then the two triangles
are congruent.
SAS (side-angle-side)
If ABC and XYZ are two triangles such that AB = XY, BC = YZ and ABC = XYZ, then the two
triangles are congruent.
ASA (angle-side-angle)
If ABC and XYZ are two triangles such that ABC = XYZ, ACB = XZY and BC = YZ, then the
two triangles are congruent.
RHS (right-hypotenuse-side)
If ABC and XYZ are two triangles such that AB = XY, BC = YZ and BAC = YXZ = 90 , then the
two triangles are congruent.
You have to be really careful with SAS, because the equal angles must be enclosed by the two pairs of equal
sides for the rule to work. In other words, the fictitious rule SSA (side-side-angle) cannot be used to show
that two triangles are congruent.
4 Three
Letter Acronym
18
To see this, we should be able to find two triangles ABC and XYZ such that AB = XY, BC = YZ and
BCA = YZX such that the two triangles are not congruent. The following diagram should convince you
that such pairs of triangles certainly do exist.
A
There are also three simple rules to determine whether or not two triangles are similar. Each one comes with
a catchy TLA which once again should hopefully be self-explanatory.
AAA (angle-angle-angle)
If ABC and XYZ are two triangles such that ABC = XYZ, BCA = YZX and CAB = ZXY,
then the two triangles are similar. In fact, since we know that the angles in a triangle add to 180 , we
only need to know two of these equations and we get the third one for free.
PPP (proportion-proportion-proportion)
If ABC and XYZ are two triangles such that the fractions
triangles are similar.
PAP (proportion-angle-proportion)
If ABC and XYZ are two triangles such that the fractions
then the two triangles are similar.
AB
XY
AB
XY
BC
YZ
BC
YZ
CA
ZX
are equal, then the two
are equal and ABC = XYZ,
Once again, you have to be really careful with PAP, because the angle must be enclosed by the two proportional sides for the rule to work. In other words, the fictitious rule PPA (proportion-proportion-angle) cannot
be used to show that two triangles are similar. Lets now apply our newfound knowledge about congruence
and similarity to prove the following simple, but extremely useful, theorem.
Theorem (Midpoint Theorem). Let ABC be a triangle where the midpoints of the sides BC, CA, AB are X, Y, Z,
respectively. Then the four triangles AZY, ZBX, YXC and XYZ are all congruent to each other and similar to triangle
ABC.
C
Z
19
Proof. First, lets prove that triangle ABC is similar to triangle AZY. Its clear that CAB = YAZ because
AB
= AC
they actually coincide. We also have the equal fractions AZ
AY = 2, so PAP tells us precisely that triangle
ABC is similar to triangle AZY and is twice the size.
An entirely similar argument no pun intended can be used to prove that triangle ABC is similar to
triangles ZBX and YXC and is twice the size. So what we have deduced is that the triangles AZY, ZBX and
YXC are all congruent to each other. In particular, we have the three equations XY = AZ, YZ = YZ and
ZX = AY which together imply that triangle XYZ is congruent to triangle AZY by SSS.
Pythagoras Theorem (Reprise)

Weve already seen Euclids proof of Pythagoras Theorem lets reword the theorem a little differently now
and consider a much slicker proof.
Theorem (Pythagoras Theorem). Consider a right-angled triangle with side lengths a, b, c where c is the length of
the hypotenuse. Then a2 + b2 = c2 .
Proof. The entire proof is captured by the two diagrams below. On the left, we see a square of side length
a + b. Weve removed four right-angled triangles, each with side lengths a, b, c and the remaining shaded
regions clearly have a combined area of a2 + b2 .
a
b
a
a
b
On the right, we also see a square of side length a + b. Weve once again removed four right-angled triangles,
each with side lengths a, b, c, but in a slightly different way. The remaining shaded region clearly has area c2
and it follows that a2 + b2 = c2 .
Theorem (Converse of Pythagoras Theorem). Consider a triangle with side lengths a, b, c where a2 + b2 = c2 .
Then the triangle is right-angled and the hypotenuse has length c.
Proof. Construct a right-angled triangle whose legs have lengths a and b, and let its hypotenuse have length d.
We can now invoke Pythagoras theorem since we proved it just a little bit earlier. It tells us that a2 + b2 = d2 .
But put this piece of information together with our assumption that a2 + b2 = c2 and you have the equation
c2 = d2 . This implies that c = d.
Therefore, the triangle with side lengths a, b, c that we were given possesses exactly the same side lengths
as the right-angled triangle that we have constructed. Because of SSS, this means that the two triangles are,
in fact, congruent. So the given triangle with side lengths a, b, c is indeed right-angled, as we intended to
prove.
20
Basic Facts about Circles

We now know lots about triangles, so lets move on to circles we start with some basic facts.
A circle is the set of points which are the same
distance r from some centre O. You should already know by now that r is called the radius of
the circle and O is called the centre of the circle.
arc
chord
A chord is a line segment which joins two points

on a circle.
diameter
An arc of a circle is the part of the circumference

cut off by a chord.
A diameter is a chord which passes through the
centre of the circle. Note that its length is twice
the radius.
This is all we need to know about circles in order to prove some pretty cool results, like the following.
Proposition. The diameter of a circle subtends an angle of 90 . In other words, if AB is the diameter of a circle and C
is a point on the circle, then ACB = 90 .
Proof. Let O be the centre of the circle. The beauty of considering the centre is that we have the three equal
radii OA = OB = OC. Equal lengths, for obvious reasons, often lead to isosceles triangles, and our diagram
happens to have two of them. There is the isosceles triangle OAC which means that we can label the equal
angles OAC = OCA = x. Theres also the isosceles triangle OBC, which means that we can label the
equal angles OBC = OCB = y. Labelling equal angles like this is an extremely common and extremely
useful trick.
C
x
x
O
Now its time for some angle chasing.5 In particular, lets consider the sum of the angles in triangle ABC.
BAC + ACB + CBA = 180

5 Angle chasing is the art of chasing angles. As Wikipedia puts it, the term is used to describe a geometrical proof that involves
finding relationships between the various angles in a diagram.
21
We can replace all of these confusing angles with xs and ys in the following way.
x + ( x + y) + y = 180
This equation is, of course, the same thing as 2( x + y) = 180 or, equivalently, x + y = 90 . All we have to do
now is recognise that ACB = x + y so we have proven that ACB = 90 .
Proposition. The angle subtended by a chord at the centre is twice the angle subtended at the circumference, on the
same side. In other words, if AB is a chord of a circle with centre O and C is a point on the circle on the same side of AB
as O, then AOB = 2 ACB.
Proof. The beauty of considering the centre is that we have the three equal radii OA = OB = OC. Equal
lengths, for obvious reasons, often lead to isosceles triangles, and our diagram happens to have three of them.
There is the isosceles triangle OAB which means that we can label the equal angles OAB = OBA = x.
Theres also the isosceles triangle OBC, which means that we can label the equal angles OBC = OCB = y.
And theres also the isosceles triangle OCA, which means that we can label the equal angles OCA =
OAC = z. Labelling equal angles like this is an extremely common and extremely useful trick.
C
z
O
180 2x
z
A
Now its time for some angle chasing. In particular, lets consider the sum of the angles in triangle ABC.

We can replace all of these confusing angles with xs, ys and zs in the following way.
( x + z) + (z + y) + (y + x ) = 180
This equation is, of course, the same thing as 2( x + y + z) = 180 . Lets keep this equation in the back of
our minds while we try and remember what it is exactly that were trying to do. We want to prove that
AOB = 2 ACB. Using the angle sum in triangle OAB, we can write AOB = 180 2x. We can also
write ACB = y + z. So what were actually aiming for is the following equation.
180 2x = 2(y + z)
But after rearranging, this is just the same thing as 2( x + y + z) = 180 , which we already proved.
22
Hopefully, youve managed to spot the similarity between these two proofs. Theyre both indicative of the
general strategies that well be using to solve tougher geometry problems. More specifically, I guess what
weve used here is the old find isosceles triangleslabel equal anglessum up the angles in a trianglework
out what youre trying to provethen prove it trick.
I should probably mention that some of the proofs Ive provided are a little incomplete. In particular, if you
check the previous proof very carefully, youll notice that it only works when O lies inside triangle ABC. It
could be possible that O lies on or even outside triangle ABC. However, the proofs in these other cases are
quite similar, so Ill leave it as a fun exercise for you to find them.
The Hockey Theorem

Suppose that a hockey coach wanted to see which player on their team had the best shot. They could line
all the players parallel to the goal and ask them to shoot to see who scores and who misses. But this would
certainly be unfair to the players on the ends who have to shoot further and have a smaller angle to aim for.
The coach could try and fix the problem by placing everyone on a circle whose centre coincides with the
middle of the goal. Of course, this means that everyone is the same distance from the goal now, but some
players have a much greater angle to aim at than others. In fact, due to the frictionless nature of the sport,
distance is no problem when shooting at a hockey goal. What we would rather test is the accuracy of each
player. So it makes sense to place everyone somewhere where they all have the same angle to aim at. In that
case, where should we put all the players? The following proposition tells us the answer they should all
stand on the arc of a circle whose end points are the goal posts.
goal
goal
goal
Proposition (Hockey Theorem). Angles subtended by a chord on the same side are equal. In other words, if
A, B, C, D are points on a circle with C and D lying on the same side of the chord AB, then ACB = ADB.
Proof. The proof to this is delightfully simple we start by letting O be the centre of the circle. We
have already proved that AOB = 2 ACB and also that AOB = 2 ADB. So it must be the case that
ACB = ADB.
D
C
x
x
O
2x
B
23
Cyclic Quadrilaterals
If I give you one point and ask you to draw a circle through it, then thats a pretty easy thing to do, right?
I could make life slightly more difficult for you by giving you two points and asking you to draw a circle
through both of them. And even if I give you three points and ask you to draw a circle through all of them,
then you could almost always do it, as long as they dont lie on a line. To see this, consider a massive circle, so
massive that all three points that I give you lie inside it. Now start shrinking the circle. Sooner or later, your
circle has to hit one of the points. Now keep that point on the circle, but keep shrinking the circle. Sooner or
later, your circle has to hit another of the points. We are now in the happy situation of having the circle pass
through two of the given points. Now we either shrink or expand our circle, while keeping it in contact with
these two points, until it finally passes through the third given point. Hopefully, this should convince you
that there is actually only one circle which passes through any three points, as long as they dont lie on a line.
So now Im going to make life particularly difficult for you by giving you four points and asking you to draw
a circle through all of them. The shrink/expand trick we used above shows that there is a unique circle which
passes through three of them. So to be able to accomplish the task, the fourth point must already lie on this
circle. The probability that I was nice enough to actually give you four points where this is true is incredibly
small. What Im trying to get at here is that if I give you a random quadrilateral, then it is extremely rare for a
circle to pass through all four of its vertices. So if a circle does pass through all four of its vertices, then the
quadrilateral must be very special indeed so special that we should give it a special name. In fact, we refer
to such a quadrilateral as a cyclic quadrilateral. Were now going to prove a very important fact about cyclic
quadrilaterals.
Proposition. The opposite angles in a cyclic quadrilateral add up to 180 . In other words, if ABCD is a cyclic
quadrilateral, then ABC + CDA = 180 and BCD + DAB = 180 .
Proof. If we draw in the diagonals AC and BD, the hockey theorem tells us that there are equal angles
galore. For example, we can label ACB = ADB = w, BDC = BAC = x, CAD = CBD = y and
DBA = DCA = z. You can go crazy labelling equal angles like this whenever theres a cyclic quadrilateral
somewhere in your diagram.
D
w
C
w
y
x
Now were going to play a similar trick to one we played before were going to add up all of the angles in
the quadrilateral and the answer should be 360 .
DAB + ABC + BCD + CDA = 360

24
We can replace all of these confusing angles with ws, xs, ys and zs in the following way.
( x + y) + (y + z) + (z + w) + (w + x ) = 360
This equation is, of course, the same thing as 2(w + x + y + z) = 360 or, equivalently, w + x + y + z = 180 .
All we have to do now is recognise that ABC = y + z and CDA = w + x, so that
ABC + CDA = (y + z) + (w + x ) = 180 .

You could also have chosen to recognise that BCD = z + w and DAB = x + y, so that
BCD + DAB = (z + w) + ( x + y) = 180 .
How to Find a Cyclic Quadrilateral

Something were going to learn is that its incredibly useful to keep your eyes open for cyclic quadrilaterals
when solving problems in Euclidean geometry. If the problem happens to mention a circle which has four
points on it, then of course, those four points form a cyclic quadrilateral. But quite often, cyclic quadrilaterals
can be hidden somewhere in your diagram, even when there are no circles involved. In those cases, you
would probably use one of the two facts below to prove that the quadrilateral is cyclic.
We proved earlier that the opposite angles in a cyclic quadrilateral add up to 180 . One thing you might be
wondering is whether the converse is true in other words, if someone gives you a quadrilateral where the
opposite angles add up to 180 , then is it necessarily true that the quadrilateral must have been cyclic? The
following proposition tells you that the converse certainly is true.
Proposition. If the opposite angles in a quadrilateral add up to 180 , then the quadrilateral is cyclic.
Another thing we proved earlier was the hockey theorem that if A, B, C, D are points on a circle with
C and D lying on the same side of the chord AB, then ACB = ADB. And another thing you might be
wondering is whether the converse is true in other words, if someone gives you a quadrilateral ABCD
where ACB = ADB, then is it necessarily true that the quadrilateral must have been cyclic? The following
proposition tells you that the converse certainly is true, once again.
Proposition. If ABCD is a convex quadrilateral such that ACB = ADB, then the quadrilateral is cyclic.
A particularly useful case occurs when you are given four points A, B, C, D such that ABC = CDA = 90 .
If ABCD is a convex quadrilateral, then we can use the first proposition above to deduce that it must actually
be a cyclic quadrilateral. On the other hand, if ABCD is a convex quadrilateral, then we can use the second
proposition above to deduce that it must actually be a cyclic quadrilateral. So either way, the four points
A, B, C, D lie on a circle. This means that when right angles appear, you can often expect cyclic quadrilaterals
to appear as well.
You can solve many many geometry problems by searching for cyclic quadrilaterals and using what you
know about them. The beauty of cyclic quadrilaterals is that if you find one pair of equal angles, then you get
three more for free. This is because if you find that ACB = ADB, then the quadrilateral ABCD is cyclic,
in which case we can apply the hockey theorem to also obtain the equal angles
BDC = BAC,
CAD = CBD,
25
and ABD = ACD.
Tangents
A tangent is a line which touches a circle at precisely
one point. Given a point outside a circle, you can
draw two tangents, thereby creating a diagram which
looks very much like an ice cream cone.
O
Q
Theorem (Ice Cream Cone Theorem). The picture

of the ice cream cone on the right is symmetric so that
AP = AQ and the line OA bisects the angle PAQ.
The proof of the ice cream cone theorem is a very simple application of congruent triangles combined with
the fact that the radius drawn from the centre of a circle to a point on its circumference is perpendicular to
the tangent at that point. The following is another extremely useful fact about tangents.
Theorem (Alternate Segment Theorem). Suppose that AT is a chord of a circle and that PQ is a line tangent to the
circle at T. If B lies on the circle, on the opposite side of the chord AT from P, then ABT = ATP.
B
A
P
Proof. The hockey theorem guarantees that, as long as C lies on the circle, on the same side of AT as B,
then ACT = ABT. So the trick here is to choose a particular point C on the circle and prove that
ACT = ATP. One nice way to choose the location of the point C is so that TC is a diameter of the circle.
C
B
O
A
x
P
26
Choosing C in this way is great because weve introduced two right angles into the diagram. We have
CAT = 90 , because its an angle subtended by the diameter TC and we also have PTO = 90 , because
its an angle created by a radius and a tangent at the point T.
So if we label ATP = x, then we have OTA = 90 x. Now use the fact that the angles in triangle CAT
add to 180 and you find that ACT = x. However, we already mentioned that ABT = ACT = x by the
hockey theorem, so we can now conclude that ABT = ATP.
It turns out that the converse of the alternate segment theorem is also true but Ill let you try to write down
exactly what it states.
Problems
Many geometry problems can be solved by angle chasing. This means labelling some but not too many
well-chosen angles in your diagram and using what you know to determine other ones. Here are some very
common ways to relate different angles in your diagram.
If two angles are next door to each other, then they add up to 180 .
Parallel lines give you equal angles and angles which add up to 180 .
The angles in a triangle add up to 180 .
Congruent or similar triangles give you equal corresponding angles.
In any cyclic quadrilateral, the opposite angles add up to 180 .
In any cyclic quadrilateral, you can apply the hockey theorem to give you four pairs of equal angles.
Apart from these tips, possibly one of the most useful things I can tell you is to always draw a very accurate,
very large diagram, preferably in multiple colours. Below are two example problems and their solutions. You
should try to read the solutions carefully to make sure that you understand them and then reread them until
you think you can reconstruct the proofs on your own.
Problem. Two circles intersect at P and Q. A line through P meets the circles C1 and C2 at A and B, respectively. Let
Y be the midpoint of AB and suppose that the line QY meets the circles C1 and C2 at X and Z, respectively. Prove that
triangle XYA is congruent to triangle ZYB.
X
P
A
Y
Z
C1
27
C2
Proof. The first thing to notice is that the two triangles have the angles XYA = ZYB as well as the sides
AY = BY in common. So to prove that theyre congruent, we could try to use either ASA or SAS. It turns out
that the first choice is better for this problem, since the circles in the diagram will give us equal angles.
So lets label YAX = x and note that the problem is completely solved if we can only show that YBZ = x
as well. Since the angle YAX = PAX is subtended by the chord PX, we can use the hockey theorem to
deduce that PQX = PAX = x. And since the angle PQZ = PQX is subtended by the chord PZ, we
can use the hockey theorem again to deduce that PBZ = PQZ = x. However, PBZ = YBZ so weve
proved that YBZ = x and the problem is solved.
Problem. Consider a semicircle with diameter AB. Suppose that D is a point such that AB = AD and AD intersects
the semicircle at the point E. Let F be the point on the chord AE such that DE = EF and extend BF to meet the
semicircle at the point C. Prove that BAE = 2EAC.
D
C
E
F
Proof. A good start would be to label EAC = x and aim to prove that BAE = 2x. Given that there is a
circle or at least half of one there is probably a cyclic quadrilateral lurking about. Hopefully, you can see
that ABEC is a cyclic quadrilateral, so we can apply the hockey theorem to deduce that EBC = EAC = x
as well.
Note that AB is a diameter and there is a certain fact that we know about diameters namely, they subtend
angles of 90 . This means that AEB = ACB = 90 . Since EBC = x, considering the angle sum in
triangle EFB yields the fact that EFB = 90 x.
Now if youve drawn a nice accurate picture, then youll see that the two triangles FEB and DEB look
suspiciously congruent. These suspicions can be confirmed by observing that that FE = ED, EB = EB,
FEB = DEB = 90 and using SAS. One consequence of this is the fact that EDB = EFB = 90 x.
One piece of information we havent used yet is the fact that AB = AD or, in other words, that triangle
ABD is isosceles. The equal side lengths imply that there are equal angles in the diagram namely,
ABD = ADB = EDB = 90 x.
Now we note that we have labelled two of the angles in triangle ABD, so we can definitely determine what
the third angle is.
BAD = 180 ABD ADB = 180 (90 x ) (90 x ) = 2x

However, this tells us that BAE = 2x as well, exactly what we set out to prove.
28
Pythagoras
Pythagoras was a Greek mathematician who lived
even before Euclid was born from around 570 BC
to around 475 BC. Even though we know and love
him for his theorem about right-angled triangles, it
was essentially known before Pythagoras arrived on
the scene and he never even managed to prove it. Actually, Pythagoras was not a great mathematician at
all, but was the first person to call himself a philosopher a word which in ancient Greek literally means
a lover of wisdom.
Apart from these facts, there isnt a great deal which is

known about Pythagoras because no written work of
his has survived to this day. Its commonly believed
that many of the accomplishments attributed to him
were simply accomplishments of people who were in
his cult.
Pythagoras founded a religious cult whose members

believed that everything was related to mathematics
and that numbers were the ultimate reality. Pythagoras himself was pretty serious about this belief, as
you can tell from the following story. When his fellow
cult member Hippasus of Metapontum managed to
prove that the number 2 was irrational a rather

ingenious and important mathematical feat which
didnt sit well with the Pythagorean philosophy
Pythagoras supposedly could not accept the result
and sentenced Hippasus to death by drowning.
The Pythagorean cult also adhered to various rules,
some mildly practical but most simply bizarre the
following are examples.
Never eat beans.
Dont pick up something that has fallen.
Dont walk on highways.
When you get out of bed, take the sheets and
roll them all together.
29
1.3. Triangle Centres
Triangle Centres
The humble triangle, with its three vertices and three sides, is actually a very remarkable object. For evidence
of this fact, just look at the Encyclopedia of Triangle Centers6 on the internet, which catalogues literally thousands
of special points that every triangle has. Well only be looking at the big four namely, the circumcentre,
the incentre, the orthocentre, and the centroid. While exploring these constructions, well need all of our
newfound geometric knowledge from the previous lecture, so lets have a quick recap.
Triangles
Congruence : There are four simple rules to determine whether or not two triangles are congruent.
They are SSS, SAS, ASA and RHS.
Similarity : There are also three simple rules to determine whether or not two triangles are similar.
They are AAA, PPP and PAP.
Midpoint Theorem : Let ABC be a triangle where the midpoints of the sides BC, CA, AB are X, Y, Z,
respectively. Then the four triangles AZY, ZBX, YXC and XYZ are all congruent to each other
and similar to triangle ABC.
Circles
The diameter of a circle subtends an angle of 90 . In other words, if AB is the diameter of a circle
and C is a point on the circle, then ACB = 90 .
The angle subtended by a chord at the centre is twice the angle subtended at the circumference, on
the same side. In other words, if AB is a chord of a circle with centre O and C is a point on the
circle on the same side of AB as O, then AOB = 2 ACB.
Hockey Theorem : Angles subtended by a chord on the same side are equal. In other words, if
A, B, C, D are points on a circle with C and D lying on the same side of the chord AB, then
ACB = ADB.
Cyclic Quadrilaterals
The opposite angles in a cyclic quadrilateral add up to 180 . In other words, if ABCD is a cyclic
quadrilateral, then ABC + CDA = 180 and BCD + DAB = 180 .
If the opposite angles in a quadrilateral add up to 180 , then the quadrilateral is cyclic.
Hockey Theorem : If ABCD is a convex quadrilateral such that ACB = ADB, then the quadrilateral is cyclic.
Tangents
Ice Cream Cone Theorem : A picture of an ice cream cone is symmetric so that the two tangents have
the same length and the line joining the centre of the circle and the tip of the cone bisects the cone
angle.
Alternate Segment Theorem : Suppose that AT is a chord of a circle and that PQ is a line tangent to the
circle at T. If B lies on the circle, on the opposite side of the chord AT from P, then ABT = ATP.
These facts should all be burned into your memory, so that you can recall and use them, whenever you
encounter a problem in Euclidean geometry.
6 http://faculty.evansville.edu/ck6/encyclopedia/ETC.html
30
The Circumcentre
A perpendicular bisector of a triangle is a line which passes through the midpoint of one side and is perpendicular to that side. Note that three randomly chosen lines will almost never ever meet at a point and yet, for
any particular triangle we choose, well see that its three perpendicular bisectors always do.
Proposition. The three perpendicular bisectors of a triangle meet at a point.
Proof. Our proof relies crucially on the following lemma, which can be proven using congruent triangles.
Lemma. A point P lies on the perpendicular bisector of AB if and only if AP = BP.
So take a triangle ABC and the perpendicular bisectors of the sides AB and BC. If we suppose that these two
lines meet at a point O, then it must be the case that AO = BO and also that BO = CO. These two equations
together imply that AO = CO, in which case O lies on the perpendicular bisector of the side CA as well.
In the previous proof, we noted that if the perpendicular bisectors of triangle ABC meet at O, then the
distances from O to the vertices are all equal. Another way to say this is that theres a circle with centre O
which passes through the vertices A, B, C. This circle is called the circumcircle of the triangle and the point
O is called the circumcentre.7 Furthermore, the radius of the circumcircle is known as the circumradius for
obvious reasons. We now know that every triangle has exactly one circumcircle and that its centre lies on the
perpendicular bisectors of the triangle.
Something interesting to note is that when triangle ABC is acute, O lies inside the triangle; when triangle
ABC is right-angled, O lies on the hypotenuse of the triangle, at its midpoint; and when triangle ABC is
obtuse, O lies outside the triangle.
Lets draw an acute triangle ABC and draw in the three perpendicular bisectors XO, YO, ZO, just like Ive
done below. There are three cyclic quadrilaterals lurking in the diagram surely you can spot them.
C
Y
O
The cyclic quadrilaterals are

AZOY the opposite angles AZO and OYA add to 180 ;
BXOZ the opposite angles BXO and OZB add to 180 ; and
CYOX the opposite angles CYO and OXC add to 180 .
7 In
Latin, the word circum means around and this makes sense because the circumcentre goes around the triangle.
31
Lets now draw in the three line segments AO, BO, CO as well as the triangle XYZ. An extremely useful
exercise is to label all of the thirty-six angles in the diagram in terms of a = CAB, b = ABC and c = BCA.
C
Y
O
The midpoint theorem states that the triangles AZY and ABC are similar, so we have YZA = b. You
can use this strategy to label six of the angles in the diagram.
Since the quadrilateral AZOY is cyclic, the hockey theorem tells us that YOA = YZA = b. You can
use this strategy to label six more of the angles in the diagram.
Since the sum of the angles in triangle YOA is 180 , we must have YAO = 90 YOA = 90 b.
You can use this strategy to label six more of the angles in the diagram.
Since the quadrilateral AZOY is cyclic, the hockey theorem tells us that YZO = YAO = 90 b.
The remaining twelve angles can be labelled by using the fact that the angles in a triangle add to 180 .
The Incentre
An angle bisector of a triangle is a line which passes through a vertex and bisects the angle at that vertex. Note
that three randomly chosen lines will almost never ever meet at a point and yet, for any particular triangle
we choose, well see that its three angle bisectors always do.
Proposition. The three angle bisectors of a triangle meet at a point.
Proof. Our proof relies crucially on the following lemma, which can be proven using congruent triangles.
Lemma. A point P lies on the angle bisector of ABC if and only if the distance from P to AB is
equal to the distance from P to CB.
So take a triangle ABC and the angle bisectors at the vertices A and B. If we suppose that these two lines
meet at a point I, then it must be the case that the distance from I to CA equals the distance from I to AB and
the distance from I to AB equals the distance from I to BC. These two statements together imply that the
distance from I to CA equals the distance from I to BC, in which case I lies on the angle bisector at the vertex
C as well.
In the previous prof, we noted that if the angle bisectors of triangle ABC meet at I, then the distances from I
to the three sides are all equal. Another way to say this is that theres a circle with centre I which touches
the sides AB, BC, CA. This circle is called the incircle of the triangle and the point I is called the incentre.8
8 In
Latin, the word in means inside and this makes sense because the incentre goes inside the triangle.
32
Furthermore, the radius of the incircle is known as the inradius for obvious reasons. We now know that every
triangle has exactly one incircle and that its centre lies on the angle bisectors of the triangle.
Lets draw a triangle ABC and draw in the three radii of the incircle PI, QI, RI, just like Ive done below.
There are three cyclic quadrilaterals lurking in the diagram surely you can spot them.
C

ARIQ the opposite angles ARI and IQA add to 180 ;
BPIR the opposite angles BPI and IRB add to 180 ; and
CQIP the opposite angles CQI and IPC add to 180 .
Lets now draw in the three line segments AI, BI, CI as well as the triangle PQR. An extremely useful exercise
is to label all of the thirty-six angles in the diagram in terms of a = CAB, b = ABC and c = BCA.
C
P
I
The ice cream cone theorem states that the angles QAI and RAI are equal, so we have QAI =
RAI = 2a . You can use this strategy to label six of the angles in the diagram.
Since the quadrilateral ARIQ is cyclic, the hockey theorem tells us that QRI = QAI = 2a . You can
Since the sum of the angles in triangle QAI is 180 , we must have QI A = 90 QAI = 90 2a .
Since the quadrilateral ARIQ is cyclic, the hockey theorem tells us that QRA = QI A = 90 2a .
The remaining twelve angles can be labelled by using the fact that the angles in a triangle add to 180
and, in fact, they are all equal to 90 .
33
The Orthocentre
An altitude of a triangle is a line which passes through a vertex and is perpendicular to the opposite side. If
the triangle happens to have an angle greater than 90 , then you will need to extend the sides in order to
draw all three altitudes. Note that three randomly chosen lines will never ever meet at a point yet, for any
particular triangle we choose, well see that its three altitudes always do.
Proposition. The three altitudes of a triangle meet at a point.
Proof. Draw the triangle A0 B0 C 0 such that A0 B0 is parallel to AB and C lies on A0 B0 , B0 C 0 is parallel to BC and
A lies on B0 C 0 , and C 0 A0 is parallel to CA and B lies on C 0 A0 .
B0
A0
D
E
C0
This creates the parallelograms ABCB0 and ABA0 C, so that we have the equal lengths B0 C = AB = CA0 .
Similarly, we have the equations C 0 A = BC = AB0 and A0 B = CA = BC 0 . So the points A, B, C are simply
the midpoints of the sides B0 C 0 , C 0 A0 , A0 B0 , respectively. This is precisely the setup for the midpoint theorem.
Since CF is perpendicular to AB, its also parallel to B0 A0 in other words, CF is the perpendicular bisector
of A0 B0 . Similarly, we know that AD is the perpendicular bisector of B0 C 0 and BE is the perpendicular bisector
of C 0 A0 . But we proved earlier that the three perpendicular bisectors of a triangle meet at a point. Therefore,
the three altitudes AD, BE, CF of triangle ABC meet at a point.
The three altitudes AD, BE, CF of triangle ABC meet at a single point H called the orthocentre.9 Something
interesting to note is that when triangle ABC is acute, H lies inside the triangle; when triangle ABC is
right-angled, H lies at a vertex of the triangle; and when triangle ABC is obtuse, H lies outside the triangle.
Lets draw an acute triangle ABC and draw in the three altitudes AD, BE, CF, just like Ive done below.
Amazingly, there are six cyclic quadrilaterals lurking in the diagram can you find them all?
9 In ancient Greek, the word ortho means vertical and this makes sense because the altitude of a triangle is vertical with respect to
the base.
34
D
E
H
F

AFHE the opposite angles AFH and HEA add to 180 ;
BDHF the opposite angles BDH and HFB add to 180 ;
CEHD the opposite angles CEH and HDC add to 180 ;
ABDE the angles ADB and AEB are equal;
BCEF the angles BEC and BFC are equal; and
CAFD the angles CFA and CDA are equal.
Lets now draw in the triangle DEF. An extremely useful exercise is to label all of the thirty-six angles in the
diagram in terms of a = CAB, b = ABC and c = BCA.
C
D
E
H
A
Since the sum of the angles in triangle ABD is 180 , we must have BAD = 90 DBA = 90 b.
You can use this strategy to label six of the angles in the diagram.
Since the quadrilateral AFHE is cyclic, the hockey theorem tells us that FEH = FAH = 90 b.
Since HEA is a right angle, we must have FEA = 90 FEH = b. You can use this strategy to
label six more of the angles in the diagram.
Since the quadrilateral AFHE is cyclic, the hockey theorem tells us that FH A = FEA = b. You can
The remaining twelve angles can be labelled by using the fact that the angles in a triangle add to 180 .
35
The Centroid
A median of a triangle is a line which passes through a vertex and the midpoint of the opposite side.
Proposition. The three medians of a triangle meet at a point.
Proof. Suppose that the medians AX and BY meet at G1 . By the midpoint theorem, we know that XY is
parallel to AB which implies that the triangles ABG1 and XYG1 are similar by AAA. We also know by the
AG1
AB
= 2, so the constant of proportionality is 2. This means that G
= 2. So the
midpoint theorem that XY
1X
median BY cuts the median AX at a point G1 such that AG1 is twice as long as G1 X.
X
G2
G1
A
Now suppose that the medians AX and CZ meet at G2 . By the midpoint theorem, we know that XZ is
parallel to AC which implies that the triangles ACG2 and XZG2 are similar by AAA. We also know by the
AG2
AC
midpoint theorem that XZ
= 2, so the constant of proportionality is 2. This means that G
= 2. So the
2X
median CZ cuts the median AX at a point G2 such that AG2 is twice as long as G2 X.
Putting these two pieces of information together, we deduce that the points G1 and G2 must actually be the
same point. In other words, the medians BY and CZ meet the median AX at the same point.
The three medians AX, BY, CZ of triangle ABC meet at a single point G called the centroid. It is the centre of
gravity of ABC in the sense that if you cut the triangle out of cardboard, then it should theoretically balance
on the tip of a pencil placed at the point G. One consequence of our proof above is the fact that we have the
equal fractions
AG
BG
CG
=
=
= 2.
GX
GY
GZ
More Fun with Triangle Centres

There is so much more to triangle centres than we have mentioned. Lets write down some interesting facts
here, which you can try to prove on your own.
Proposition. If the orthocentre of triangle ABC is H, then the orthocentre of triangle HBC is A, the orthocentre of
triangle HCA is B and the orthocentre of triangle H AB is C.
Proposition. If you take a triangle ABC and draw in the three medians AX, BY, CZ, then the six resulting triangles
all have equal area.
36
The following proposition shows that the four triangle centres we have looked at are related in various
peculiar ways you should try to prove all of these statements.
Proposition. Given a triangle ABC, let the midpoints of the sides be X, Y, Z, let the incircle touch the sides at P, Q, R,
and let the feet of the altitudes be D, E, F.
The circumcentre O of triangle ABC is the orthocentre of triangle XYZ.
The incentre I of triangle ABC is the circumcentre of triangle PQR.
The orthocentre H of triangle ABC is the incentre of triangle DEF.
The centroid G of triangle ABC is the centroid of triangle XYZ.
Problems
When solving difficult geometry problems, here are a few things to always keep a look out for. If you become
well practised at spotting these objects in your geometry diagrams, then you are well on the way to becoming
a geometry guru.
cyclic quadrilaterals
similar or congruent triangles
isosceles triangles
right angles
equal angles and lengths
ice cream cones
Problem. Let ABC be a triangle with incentre I and extend AI until it meets the circumcircle of triangle ABC at X.
Prove that X is the circumcentre of triangle BIC.
A
a a
I
b
B
c
c
X
Proof. When the incentre of triangle ABC is involved, I like to let the angles at A, B, C be 2a, 2b, 2c, respectively.
This is because I lies on the angle bisectors so I can label
BAI = CAI = a,
CBI = ABI = b,
ACI = BCI = c.
We want to prove that X is the circumcentre of triangle BIC or equivalently, that the lengths BX, IX, CX are
all equal. Hopefully you can see that the problem is solved if we can prove that triangle BXI is isosceles with
BX = IX. This is because the same reasoning will tell us that triangle CXI is isosceles with CX = IX.
37
So lets focus on proving that BX = IX. Since there are many relationships between angles in circles, it makes
sense to try to instead prove that IBX = BIX. Using our notation, we obtain that
IBX = CBX + IBC = CAX + IBC = a + b.

Here, weve used the hockey theorem on chord CX to deduce that CBX = CAX = a.
Now observe that BIX + BI A = 180 , since they form a straight line. And if we sum up the angles in
triangle ABI, we obtain the equation BAI + ABI + BI A = 180 or equivalently, a + b + BI A = 180 .
These two facts imply that BIX = a + b, so we have deduced that IBX = BIX. As we mentioned
earlier, it follows that BX = IX and similar reasoning will lead to CX = IX as well. Hence, the three lengths
BX, IX, CX are all equal and X is the circumcentre of triangle BIC.
Problem. If ABC is a triangle with a right angle at C, prove that the angle bisector from C bisects the angle formed by
the altitude from C and the median from C.
Proof. Lets call the altitude, the angle bisector and the median CF, CT and CZ, respectively. Then what wed
like to prove can be rephrased as FCT = TCZ. However, we already know that CT bisects the right angle,
so that TCA = TCB. What this means is that we can rephrase the problem once again as FCA = ZCB.
With this in mind, lets write a = CAB and try to determine the angles FCA and ZCB in terms of a.
C
a
A
The first of these angles is easy since triangle CFA is right-angled, we can write FCA = 90 a. Now
if we consider the sum of the angles in triangle ABC, we obtain ABC = 90 a which is equivalent to
ZBC = 90 a. Remember that our goal is to prove that ZCB = FCA = 90 a. So what we should
try to prove now is that triangle ZBC is isosceles, with ZB = ZC. But remember that the diameter of a circle
subtends an angle of 90 , so a circle with diameter AB passes through C. As Z is the midpoint of AB, this
means that Z is the circumcentre of triangle ABC and ZB = ZC, as desired.
38
Fermat
Pierre de Fermat was actually a lawyer by day at
the Parlement of Toulouse and an amateur mathematician by night. He lived in the early seventeenth
century from 1601 to 1665 and is often credited with
the development of a very early form of what we now
call calculus. However, Fermat is probably most famous for his work in number theory. One theorem of
his Fermats Little Theorem says that if you pick
your favourite positive integer a and your favourite
prime number p, then the number a p a will be divisible by p. The most famous story about Fermat tells
of how he pencilled in the margin of a mathematics
book the following problem.
In geometry, there is a triangle centre known as the

Fermat point. Given a triangle ABC, it is the point P
which makes the sum of the distances PA + PB + PC
as small as possible. If no angles of the triangle
are greater than or equal to 120 , the point P will
be the unique point inside the triangle such that
APB = BPC = CPA = 120 .
It is impossible to find two perfect cubes

which sum to a perfect cube, two perfect fourth powers which sum to a perfect
fourth power, or in general, two perfect
nth powers which sum to a perfect nth
power, if n is an integer greater than 2.
Rather tantalisingly, Fermat also wrote that he had
a marvellous proof which was too small to fit into
the margin. Of course, many people tried to recreate
the supposedly unwritten proof, but to no avail. In
fact, Fermats Last Theorem as the result is commonly called was not proved until 1995, the proof
being over one hundred pages long and using extremely technical mathematical tools which havent
been around for very long. Almost every mathematician believes that Fermat must have been either mistaken or lying.
39
1.4. Geometric Gems
The Nine Point Circle

Now we come to one of the real gems of geometry, a theorem which was discovered more than two thousand
years after Euclids day. Remember that for every three points which do not lie on a line, there is a unique
circle which passes through them. For four points, there is very rarely going to be a circle which passes
through them all, and if there is, then those four points form a very special type of quadrilateral called a
cyclic quadrilateral. Given that its already quite difficult for four points to lie on a circle, then it must be
near impossible to find nine points which lie on a circle. And yet, this is precisely what the nine point circle
theorem tells us we can find nine points which lie on a circle, associated to any particular triangle we
choose to think about.
Theorem (Nine Point Circle Theorem). Let ABC be a triangle with altitudes AD, BE, CF, medians AX, BY, CZ,
and orthocentre H. If A0 , B0 , C 0 are the midpoints of AH, BH, CH, respectively, then the nine points A0 , B0 , C 0 , D, E, F,
X, Y, Z all lie on a circle which is for obvious reasons called the nine point circle of triangle ABC.
C
C0
D
X
Y
E
H
A0
A
B0
F
Proof. There are midpoints galore in this problem in fact, six of the nine points that we are interested in are
defined as midpoints. So it seems like a prime opportunity to use the midpoint theorem. Applied in triangle
ABH, we obtain that A0 B0 is parallel to AB. Applied in triangle ABC, we obtain that XY is also parallel to
AB. Applied in triangle ACH, we obtain that A0 Y is parallel to CH. Applied in triangle BCH, we obtain that
B0 X is also parallel to CH.
In summary, XY and A0 B0 are parallel to each other and to AB. Furthermore, A0 Y and B0 X are parallel to each
other and to CH. However, since CH is perpendicular to AB by assumption, we know that A0 B0 XY must be
a rectangle. The exact same argument can be used to show that B0 C 0 YZ and C 0 A0 ZX are also rectangles.
Now let N be the midpoint of A0 X and note that this means that N is the centre of the circle passing through
the vertices of rectangle A0 B0 XY as well as the centre of the circle passing through the vertices of C 0 A0 ZX,
both of which have A0 X as diameters. Therefore, the six points A0 , B0 , C 0 , X, Y, Z all lie on a circle with centre
N. Six points down and three to go. . .
Since A0 B0 XY is a rectangle, we have A0 YX = 90 . But A0 DX = 90 as well, so we know that the
quadrilateral A0 XDY is cyclic. In particular, D lies on the circumcircle of triangle A0 XY, which we have
already seen actually passes through the six points A0 , B0 , C 0 , X, Y, Z. The same argument shows that E and F
lie on this circle as well. So we can now conclude that the nine points A0 , B0 , C 0 , D, E, F, X, Y, Z all lie on a
circle.
40
1.4. Geometric Gems
The Euler Line and Other Gems

This next theorem tells us that three of the four triangle centres that weve already considered are very closely
related in fact, they always lie on a line. Its amazing that such a simple fact seems to have escaped
everybodys notice until Euler, a pretty amazing mathematician whom well encounter again later, arrived on
the scene in the eighteenth century.
Theorem. The orthocentre H, the centroid G and the circumcentre O of any triangle lie on a line known as the Euler
line. Furthermore, we have the equation HG = 2GO.
A
G O
There are many, many, many, many, many more geometric gems out there and weve really only scratched
the surface of Euclidean geometry. For example, there is the following fact which adds the nine point circle
centre to the list of points lying on the Euler line.
Theorem. The orthocentre H, the nine point circle centre N, the centroid G and the circumcentre O of any triangle lie
on a line known as the Euler line. Furthermore, we have the equation HN = NO.
To be honest, Euclidean geometry is not a thriving area of research mathematics. This is probably because
new theorems in Euclidean geometry have limited uses in other areas. But that doesnt mean they arent
interesting, and it doesnt mean that people arent discovering new geometric gems all the time. Heres a
pair of related facts, the first which was discovered just over a century ago, while the second was discovered
about ten years ago.
Theorem.
Observe that if you take any four points A, B, C, D, then you can draw the nine point circles of the triangles
ABC, BCD, CDA and DAB. Amazingly, all four of these circles meet at a single point lets call this point P.
Now suppose that we consider the feet of the perpendiculars from A to the sides of triangle BCD, where you may
have to extend the sides. This will give us three points whose circumcircle we call the A-circle. Similarly, there is
a B-circle, a C-circle and a D-circle. Amazingly, all four of these circles you guessed it meet at a single
point, which happens to coincide precisely with the point P.
Its amazing or at least I think its amazing that you can build this incredibly intricate world of geometry
with just pen, paper and ten little axioms.
41
1.4. Geometric Gems
Non-Euclidean Geometry
Were now going to go back to where our journey began, way back to Euclid and his axioms. The common
notions are pretty much trivial statements with no real geometric content. So lets look at the other five
axioms, which are commonly referred to as postulates.
A1. You can draw a unique line segment between any two given points.
A2. You can extend a line segment to produce a unique line.
A3. You can draw a unique circle with a given centre and a given radius.
A4. Any two right angles are equal to each other.
A5. Suppose that a line ` meets two other lines, making two interior angles on one side of ` which sum to
less than 180 . Then the two lines, when extended indefinitely, will meet on that side of `.
It didnt take very long at all for mathematicians to notice that one of the postulates sticks out like a sore
thumb. Can you guess which one it is? Of course you can. . . its the only one which takes more than one
line to write down. At a deeper level, it just seems to be conceptually so much more complicated than the
rest. So for centuries upon centuries after Euclid announced his axioms, one of the burning questions in
mathematics was whether or not the fifth axiom was needed at all, whether or not it could be proved from
the other axioms.
Many mathematicians throughout the ages tackled the problem, but to no avail. A small advance was made
by showing that you could write down the parallel postulate in the following simpler looking, but actually
equivalent, form. In fact, when Euclids fifth axiom is written in this way, its often referred to as the parallel
postulate.
A50 . Given a line and a point not on the line, there exists a unique line through the given point, parallel to
the given line.
One common approach was to to assume the opposite of the parallel postulate and keep deducing and
deducing, with the aim of finding a contradiction. If a contradiction could be found, then the opposite of
the parallel postulate was false, thereby proving that the parallel postulate was true. Unfortunately or
possibly, fortunately no one was successful in doing so. What they should have done is stop looking for
a contradiction, because there are none. If they had done this, then they would have realised that all the
statements that they were deducing were theorems in a new type of geometry. Since this geometry comes
from taking the opposite of one of Euclids axioms, its commonly known as non-Euclidean geometry.
There were various people who contributed to the discovery of non-Euclidean geometry, all of whom lived
around the turn of the nineteenth century. The mathematicians Bolyai and Lobachevsky probably deserve
the most credit, but their ideas are related to work by Saccheri, Gauss and various other people. Note that
there are actually two ways to change the parallel postulate so as to create a non-Euclidean geometry.
Given a line and a point not on the line, there exists no line through the given point, parallel to the given
line.
Given a line and a point not on the line, there exists more than one line through the given point, parallel
to the given line.
42
1.4. Geometric Gems
Spherical Geometry
Euclidean geometry, for thousands of years, seemed to reflect the world around us and was the only geometry
studied by mathematicians. But why should mathematics follow the rules of the real world? Why cant
you invent your own rules? And this is precisely what mathematicians decided to do. Nowadays, there are
many different types of geometry which people study. And usually, after studying these, people discovered
that they turned out to be both interesting and surprisingly useful to the real world. So what makes these
seemingly crazy-sounding theories deserve to be called geometry? Loosely speaking, you can think of a
geometry as anything where you have objects called points and lines, where points can lie on lines and lines
can intersect lines, and so on.
The simplest non-Euclidean geometry is actually rather simple. Its spherical geometry, which is the geometry
we are used to when we talk about flying around the Earth. Take a sphere lets say it has radius 1 to be
definite and consider the paths of shortest distance between two points. These are just arcs of great circles,
those circles whose centre is the centre of the sphere. We can now define the points in spherical geometry to
be the points on the unit sphere, and we also define the lines in spherical geometry to be the great circles.
We now have a new type of geometry with points and lines and angles and circles and so forth, but which
satisfies the following statement.
Given a line and a point not on the line, there exists no line through the given point, parallel to the given
line.
You can see that two lines in spherical geometry can never be parallel, because they always meet at two
points on opposite sides of the sphere.
Its possible to prove lots of interesting theorems in spherical geometry heres just one interesting example.
It shows that you can calculate the area of a spherical triangle from its three angles alone, something which is
impossible to do in Euclidean geometry.
Theorem. A spherical triangle whose angles measured in radians10 are a, b, c has area a + b + c .
Proof. Lets think of our sphere as an orange with radius 1 and recall that its surface area is simply 4.
Consider what happens if you slice through the orange twice, with the knife passing through the centre of
the orange, such that the two cuts make an angle of a radians with each other. This will create two slices, on
2a
opposite sides of the orange, whose total surface area is 2
times the total surface area of the orange. So these
2a
two slices will have surface area 2 4 = 4a.
Now take a spherical triangle whose angles measured in radians are a, b, c. If we extend the sides, we obtain
a diagram very much like the one below, where the blue spherical triangle is the one whose area we wish
to calculate. Note that there is the same triangle, which weve shaded in grey, appearing on the back of the
sphere as well.
Cutting along the two lines which form the angle a will create two orange slices with area 4a. Similarly,
cutting along the two lines which form the angle b will create two orange slices with area 4b. And similarly
again, cutting along the two lines which form the angle c will create two orange slices with area 4c.
10 Im hoping that you already know how to measure angles in radians, but if not, then its easy to learn. All you need to know is that
radians is the same thing as 180 . Now youre probably wondering why on earth someone would decide to measure angles in this
way. A better thing to wonder is why on earth someone would decide to split a straight angle into 180 parts and call each one a degree.
Radians are very natural, because if you take a slice of pizza of a given angle, then the angle measured in radians is simply the length of
the crust divided by the length of one of the cuts in other words, the length of the arc divided by the radius of the circle. Because this
is so natural, many formulas in mathematics look a whole lot nicer when you use radians to measure angles.
43
1.4. Geometric Gems
Now lets see what happens when we add up all of these areas. Most of the sphere is accounted for exactly
once, but the blue spherical triangle has been accounted for three times and the grey spherical triangle has
also been accounted for three times. So if we let A denote the area of the blue triangle, or equivalently, the
area of the grey triangle, we have the equation
4a + 4b + 4c = 4 + 4A.
Here, the number 4 represents the total surface area of the sphere with radius 1. This equation rearranges to
give the desired formula A = a + b + c .
One very interesting consequence of this theorem is the fact that the angles in a spherical triangle must add
to more than 180 . This should seem intuitively true, because the sides of a spherical triangle seem to bulge
outwards, creating larger angles than a Euclidean triangle. This is one of the major differences between
spherical and Euclidean geometry.
Remember that one of our goals is to show that you can have a geometry in which all of Euclids axioms
are true except for the parallel postulate. Certainly, the parallel postulate fails to hold in spherical geometry,
but unfortunately its not the only one which fails. For example, its not true in spherical geometry that you
can draw a unique line segment between any two given points. Thats because between the north pole and
the south pole of the sphere, there are infinitely many line segments. However, knowing a bit about how
spherical geometry works will help us with hyperbolic geometry, a case where all of Euclids axioms do hold
except for the parallel postulate.
Hyperbolic Geometry
We now consider a type of geometry which satisfies the following statement.
Given a line and a point not on the line, there exists more than one line through the given point, parallel
to the given line.
This geometry will be far more difficult to visualise and is conceptually more removed from everyday
experience. The geometry we will talk about is called hyperbolic geometry and there are many ways to describe
it. The particular way that were going to use is called the Poincare disk model.
44
1.4. Geometric Gems
In the Poincare disk model, the hyperbolic plane is an open disk lets say it has radius 1 to be definite
or, in other words, all of the points which are inside, but not on the circumference of, a circle. Very intuitively,
you can think of the hyperbolic plane as a circular pond of quicksand, one where its easy to walk around
when youre close to the middle, but which gets infinitely difficult to travel through when youre close to the
edge. So the effort that it takes you to get from point A to point B or equivalently, the hyperbolic distance from
point A to point B, is warped and not like the normal Euclidean distance between two points. This means
that if you were told to walk from point A to point B, you would probably take a curved path, which bends
toward the middle of the circular pond of quicksand. Anyway, its possible to make all of this mumbo jumbo
precise and the end result is that hyperbolic geometry works as follows.
A hyperbolic point is just a normal point inside the hyperbolic plane.
A hyperbolic line is the arc of a circle which is perpendicular to the boundary of the disk or a diameter
of the disk.
You can see some examples of hyperbolic lines drawn in the Poincare disk model below. Remember that
lines are said to be parallel if they never meet. You should now be able to convince yourself that, given a line
in hyperbolic geometry and a point not on the line, there exists more than one line through the given point,
parallel to the given line.
Remember that in spherical geometry, the area of a triangle with angles a, b, c is simply a + b + c . Not
only does this mean that you can calculate the area of a triangle from its angles alone, but also that in every
spherical triangle, the angles add up to more than 180 . Hyperbolic geometry is, in many ways, the exact
opposite of spherical geometry. For example, in every hyperbolic triangle, the angles add up to less than
180 . This should seem intuitively true, because the sides of a hyperbolic triangle seem to curve inwards,
creating smaller angles than a Euclidean triangle. Furthermore, you can calculate the area of a hyperbolic
triangle from its angles alone in the following way.
Theorem. A hyperbolic triangle whose angles measured in radians are a, b, c has area a b c.
Note that there are theorems which will be the same in Euclidean, spherical or hyperbolic geometry. This is
simply because there are results which you can prove which dont rely on the parallel postulate at all. Even
though hyperbolic geometry seems the most far removed from our everyday experience, it is, in some sense,
the most mathematically important and is used in various areas of pure mathematics and theoretical physics.
45
1.4. Geometric Gems
Problems
Problem. Consider a point P on the circle which passes through the vertices of triangle ABC. Let D be the point on
BC such that PD is perpendicular to BC. Let E be the point on CA such that PE is perpendicular to CA. Let F be the
point on AB such that PF is perpendicular to CA. (You may have to extend the lines AB, BC and CA for this to be
possible.) Prove that the points D, E and F lie on a line.11
F
P
Proof. The first thing to do, as always, is to draw a large accurate diagram. With a big fat circle in the picture,
it is hard to miss the fact that the quadrilateral ABCP must be cyclic. This is a very useful piece of information
to note down because were going to use it later.
In general, right angles will often lead to cyclic quadrilaterals, and there are actually three of them that we
havent yet mentioned. One of the easiest ones to see is the quadrilateral PFAE, which is cyclic because its
opposite angles add up to 180 .
PFA + AEP = 90 + 90 = 180 .

Another one which is not too difficult to spot is the quadrilateral PFBD, which is also cyclic because its
opposite angles add up to 180 .
PFB + BDP = 90 + 90 = 180

Finally, we consider quadrilateral PEDC, which is cyclic because of the hockey theorem applied to the equal
angles
PEC = PDC = 90 .
11 The
line passing through the points D, E and F is actually known as the Simson line of the point P and the triangle ABC.
46
1.4. Geometric Gems
Lets remember exactly what were trying to prove namely, that the points D, E and F lie on a line. One
way to prove this would be to show that PEF + PED = 180 . If we label the angle PEF = x, then the
hockey theorem applied to the cyclic quadrilateral PFAE tells us that PAF = x as well. The angle next door
to this must then be PAB = 180 x. Since the opposite angles in the cyclic quadrilateral ABCP must add
up to 180 , this in turn yields the fact that BCP = x. And now we use the fact that the opposite angles in
the cyclic quadrilateral PEDC must add up to 180 to tell us that
PED = 180 DCP = 180 BCP = 180 x.

If youve labelled all of these angles on your diagram, then you will have noticed that we have now labelled
both PEF and PED. This is most useful, because we now have
PEF + PED = x + (180 x ) = 180 .

And this is exactly what were aiming to prove, because it implies that the points D, E and F lie on a line.
Problem. In the hyperbolic plane, there exist quadrilaterals all of whose angles are equal to 45 . Sketch one example of
such a quadrilateral in the hyperbolic plane using the Poincare disk model. What is the area of this quadrilateral?
Proof. The large circle below represents the Poincare disk model of the hyperbolic plane. The four dotted
curves represent four hyperbolic lines. As you can see from the diagram, they form a quadrilateral all of
whose angles are equal to 45 .
45
45
45
45
Now consider the following schematic diagram for the quadrilateral, where the hyperbolic lines are represented by normal straight lines. We have divided the quadrilateral into two triangles numbered 1 and 2
and labelled every single angle in the diagram.
47
1.4. Geometric Gems
a f
Since each angle of the quadrilateral is equal to 45 , we have four equations that these labelled angles must
satisfy. Here, we have labelled the angles using radians rather than degrees.
a+ f =
,
4
b=
,
4
c+d =
,
4
e=
One of the advantages of using radians is that the area of a hyperbolic triangle is much easier to determine.
In fact, we know that the area of triangle 1 is a b c and the area of triangle 2 is d e f . Adding
up the areas of these two triangles, we deduce that the area of the quadrilateral is
( a b c) + ( d e f )
= 2 ( a + b + c + d + e + f )
= 2 ( a + f ) (b) (c + d) (e)
= 2
4
4
4
4
= .
48
1.4. Geometric Gems
Gauss
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss who was born in 1777
and died in 1855 was a German mathematician
who contributed significantly to a variety of subjects.
The book Men of Mathematics by Eric Temple Bell and
published in 1937 which apart from the sexist title, is a decent read has a chapter on Gauss which
begins Archimedes, Newton and Gauss, these three,
are in a class by themselves among the great mathematicians, and its not for ordinary mortals to attempt
to range them in order of merit. Hopefully this convinces you that Gauss is regarded among the best
mathematicians who ever walked the earth.
amount to praising myself. For the entire content of

the work. . . coincides almost exactly with my own
meditations which have occupied my mind for the
past thirty or thirty-five years.
Gauss was known to be a child prodigy and there

is a famous story which tells of his primary school
teacher asking the class to add up the numbers from
1 up to 100. The very young Gauss produced the
correct answer in seconds, to the astonishment of his
teacher. Presumably, his method was to pair the numbers 1 + 100 = 101, 2 + 99 = 101, 3 + 98 = 101, and so
on, obtaining fifty pairs, each with sum 101. Hence,
the answer is 50 101 = 5050.
It seems that Gauss may have discovered the possibility of non-Euclidean geometry but, for some strange
reason, decided not to publish it. In fact, when a
younger mathematician by the name of Janos Bolyai
discovered non-Euclidean geometry and published
his work in 1832, Gauss wrote that To praise it would
49
2.1. Isometries
What is Symmetry?
You probably have an intuitive idea of what symmetry means and can recognise it in various guises. For
example, you can hopefully see that the letters N, O
and M are symmetric, while the letter R is not. But
probably, you cant define in a mathematically precise way what it means to be symmetric this is
something were going to address.
Symmetry occurs very often in nature, a particular
example being in the human body, as demonstrated
by Leonardo da Vincis drawing of the Vitruvian Man
on the right.12 The symmetry in the picture arises
since it looks essentially the same when we flip it
over. A particularly important observation about the
drawing is that the distance from the Vitruvian Mans
left index finger to his left elbow is the same as the
distance from his right index finger to his right elbow.
Similarly, the distance from the Vitruvian Mans left
knee to his left eye is the same as the distance from
his right knee to his right eye. We could go on and
on writing down statements like this, but the point
Im trying to get at is that our intuitive notion of symmetry at least in geometry is somehow tied up
with the notion of distance.
What is an Isometry?
The flip in the previous discussion was a particular function which took points in the picture to other points
in the picture. In particular, it did this in such a way that two points which were a certain distance apart
would get mapped to two points which were the same distance apart. This motivates us to consider functions
f which map points in the plane to points in the plane such that the distance from f ( P) to f ( Q) is the same
as the distance from P to Q for any choice of points P and Q. Any function which satisfies this property is
called an isometry. This comes from the ancient Greek words isos, meaning equal, and metron, meaning
measure.
Example. The best way to get a feeling for what an isometry looks like is to consider some examples.
Identity : The identity is the function which simply takes a point P in the plane to the same point P. In
other words, it does nothing, so hopefully you can see that its an example of an isometry in fact, the
simplest example of an isometry. Well sometimes denote the identity map by I.
Translation : A translation is a function which takes every point in the plane and slides it in a certain
direction by a certain distance. In other words, if f is a translation such that f ( A) = B and f ( X ) = Y,
then the quadrilateral ABYX will always be a parallelogram. This means that if you want to specify a
12 Leonardo
da Vinci was very interested in symmetry and later on were going to see a theorem which bears his name.
50
2.1. Isometries
translation, then you only have to specify a point A and the point f ( A) = B. Well sometimes denote
the translation which takes the point A to the point B by TAB .
B
f
Y
f
X
Rotation : A rotation is a function which takes the whole plane and turns it about a certain point O
through a certain angle a. In other words, if f is a rotation such that f ( A) = B, then the centre of
rotation O and the angle of rotation a satisfy OA = OB and AOB = a. This means that if you want to
specify a rotation, then you only have to specify the centre of rotation and the angle of rotation. Well
sometimes denote the rotation about the point O through an angle a by RO,a .
B
Reflection : A reflection is a function which takes the whole plane and flips it over a certain line ` which
we also refer to as a mirror. Its important to observe that if a reflection maps the point A to the point B,
then ` will be the perpendicular bisector of the line segment AB. This means that if you want to specify
a rotation, then you only have to specify the mirror. Well sometimes denote the reflection through the
line ` by M` .
A
B
Suppose that P and Q are two points in the plane which are distance d apart from each other. If we apply an
isometry to both points, then the result will be two points which are still distance d apart from each other.
If we apply another isometry to the resulting points, then the new result will be two points which are still
distance d apart from each other. The application of two or more isometries in a row is called composition of
isometries. From what weve just said, you can see that the composition of two or more isometries will always
be an isometry. This means that we can compose the examples weve listed above in an attempt to discover
new isometries.
51
2.1. Isometries
Interesting Facts about Isometries

One of our guiding questions will be to determine what sorts of isometries there are. For example, is it true
that the examples we discussed earlier identity, translation, rotation and reflection account for every
single possible isometry? Before we answer this question, we need to prove some basic facts.
Proposition. If f is an isometry such that f ( A) = A0 , f ( B) = B0 , f (C ) = C 0 , then triangles ABC and A0 B0 C 0 are
congruent.
A0
B0
C0
Proof. By the very definition of an isometry, we have the equal lengths AB = A0 B0 , BC = B0 C 0 and CA = CA0 .
So it follows by SSS that the triangle ABC and the triangle A0 B0 C 0 are congruent.
What if I give you two triangles ABC and A0 B0 C 0 and ask you whether you can find an isometry such that
f ( A) = A0 , f ( B) = B0 and f (C ) = C 0 ? The previous proposition says that you couldnt possibly be able to
do this unless the triangles ABC and A0 B0 C 0 are congruent. So if we suppose that they actually are congruent,
then can you definitely find an isometry satisfying the conditions? If so, then how many can you find exactly?
The next proposition states that you can always find one and only one.
Theorem. If triangles ABC and A0 B0 C 0 are congruent, then there is a unique isometry such that f ( A) = A0 ,
f ( B) = B0 and f (C ) = C 0 .
Proof. To show that there is at least one such isometry, we can construct it explicitly. First, we translate triangle
ABC until A lines up with A0 . Then we rotate triangle ABC around the point A until B lines up with B0 . Now
if C and C 0 dont already line up, then we reflect through the line AB so that they do. Since the composition
of these two or three isometries is also an isometry, we have constructed an isometry satisfying the conditions
of the problem. Note that we need triangles ABC and A0 B0 C 0 to be congruent so that everything lines up
exactly as we have described.
Now we need to show that there is at most one such isometry. Take any point P in the plane we will show
that there is only one possible point P0 for f ( P). This is because the definition of an isometry forces the point
P0 to satisfy the conditions A0 P0 = AP, B0 P0 = BP, and C 0 P0 = CP.
Another way to say this is that P0 has to
lie on the circle with centre A0 and radius AP;
lie on the circle with centre B0 and radius BP; and
lie on the circle with centre C 0 and radius CP.
52
2.1. Isometries
A0
P0
C0
B0
Q0
But hopefully you can see that the latter two circles can only meet at two points which weve labelled P0 and
Q0 , while the first circle can only pass through one of these two. And this single point where the three circles
meet is the only possible location for the point f ( P). So we have shown that for every point P in the plane,
there is only one possible location for the point f ( P). This means that there is at most one isometry f such
that f ( A) = A0 , f ( B) = B0 and f (C ) = C 0 .
Since weve proven that there is at least one isometry satisfying the given conditions as well as the fact that
there is at most one isometry satisfying the given conditions, we can put these two statements together to
deduce that theres a unique isometry satisfying the given conditions.
One very important consequence of this theorem is the fact that two isometries f and g must be the same if
they satisfy f ( A) = g( A), f ( B) = g( B) and f (C ) = g(C ) for some triangle ABC.
Composition of Isometries
Weve already mentioned that you can take isometry f followed by an isometry g and that the result is
another isometry called the composition of f and g. Its going to be very useful to have some notation for this
idea. So lets denote the result of doing f followed by doing g as g f . Yes, thats right even though we
do f first and g second, we write the result with g to the left of f .13
f
P f ( P) g( f ( P)) = g f ( P)
13 The reason for this is because in function notation, we would normally write the result of doing f followed by doing g to a point P
as g( f ( P)) note that even though we do f first and g second, we write the result with g to the left of f .
53
2.1. Isometries
As our first application of composition, Im going to introduce a new isometry which didnt appear in our
original list of examples. Its the isometry which you get when you do a reflection in a line ` followed by a
translation parallel to `. Using our earlier notation, we could write such a function as TAB M` , where AB is
a line segment parallel to `. An isometry which takes this form is called a glide reflection and well sometimes
denote it by G AB . The process of repeatedly applying a glide reflection is something youve no doubt all
done before when walking along the beach. Each successive footprint that you leave in the sand is a glide
reflection applied to the previous footprint.
Since you can compose different isometries, a natural question to ask is what the result is. For example, the
fact below follows immediately from the definition of a translation and doesnt really need a proof.
Proposition. The composition of a translation with another translation is always a translation.14 In fact, we have the
rather obvious formula TBC TAB = TAC .
To write down a similar fact concerning the composition of two reflections is a more difficult matter but
we can still do it.
Proposition. Let Mk denote a reflection in the line k and M` denote a reflection in the line `. Then the composition
M` Mk of a reflection in k followed by a reflection in ` is
the identity if k and ` are the same line;
a translation if k and ` are parallel lines the direction of translation is perpendicular to k and ` while the
distance of translation is twice the distance between k and `; or
a rotation if the two lines meet the centre of rotation is the intersection of k and ` while the angle of rotation is
twice the angle from k to `.
Proof.
This ones obvious because if you reflect twice through the same line, you end up where you started.
In the following diagram, you can see that the result of applying M` Mk to P is to move it by a distance
of 2a + 2b, where a + b is the distance between k and `. Furthermore, the direction of translation is
perpendicular to both k and `.
a
P
Mk ( P )
b
M` Mk ( P )
14 You might think that we havent accounted for the fact that the composition of two translations could possibly be the identity.
However, you can and should consider the identity as a translation which moves every point by zero distance.
54
2.1. Isometries
In the following diagram, you can see that the result of applying M` Mk to P is to rotate by an angle
2a + 2b, where a + b is the angle from k to `. Furthermore, the centre of rotation is the intersection of k
and `.
`
M` Mk ( P )
Mk ( P )
P
b b
Although weve demonstrated these facts for only one particular point P, the argument would have worked
for several different choices of P. By the theorem we proved earlier, we only need to demonstrate these facts
for three points which form a triangle to know that they hold for all points.
Well also state a couple more results concerning composition of isometries. We wont provide the proofs,
since they arent particularly interesting and they use ideas very similar to those in the previous proof.
However, you should definitely draw a few diagrams to convince yourself that they are true.
Proposition. Let R1 be a rotation by angle a1 and R2 be a rotation by angle a2 . Then the composition R2 R1 is
a rotation by angle a1 + a2 if a1 + a2 6= 360 ; or
a translation if a1 + a2 = 360 .
Proposition. A reflection followed by a translation is a reflection or a glide reflection. A reflection followed by a
rotation is a reflection or a glide reflection.
Classification of Isometries
Since the composition of two isometries is again an isometry, you can try to build every possible isometry
out of some simple building blocks.15 The next result tells us that we can take the reflections as our building
blocks.
Proposition. Every isometry is the composition of at most three reflections.
Proof. Consider any isometry f , any triangle ABC, and let f ( A) = A0 , f ( B) = B0 and f (C ) = C 0 . All we
need to prove is that it takes at most three reflections to send A to A0 , B to B0 and C to C 0 . We simply reflect
in the perpendicular bisector of AA0 so that A ends up coinciding with A0 . Now we simply reflect in the
perpendicular bisector of BB0 so that B ends up coinciding with B0 . The congruence of triangles ABC and
A0 B0 C 0 ensures that A still coincides with A0 . Now either the two triangles coincide and the job took two
reflections, or we need one more reflection through A0 B0 to finish off the job, so that C coincides with C 0 .
15 This
reeks of the reductionist approach that we used to begin our journey into Euclidean geometry.
55
2.1. Isometries
Theorem. Every isometry is a translation, a reflection, a rotation or a glide reflection.

Proof. We just proved that every isometry is the product of at most three reflections, so the proof can be
divided into the following cases.
The only isometry which is the product of zero reflections is, of course, the identity isometry. As usual,
we can think of the identity isometry as a translation which moves every point by zero distance.
The only isometries which are the product of one reflection are, of course, reflections themselves.
The proposition which we proved above tells us that the product of two reflections is the identity, a
translation or a rotation.
Now lets consider the product of three reflections as a reflection followed by the product of two
reflections. Thus, the product of three reflections can be the product of a reflection and the identity, the
product of a reflection and a translation, or the product of a reflection and a rotation. In the first case
we obtain a reflection, in the second case we obtain a reflection or a glide reflection, and in the third
case we obtain a reflection or a glide reflection.
So what you can hopefully see is that products of up to three reflections always result in a translation, a
reflection, a rotation or a glide reflection. Furthermore, since every isometry is the composition of at most
three reflections, this accounts for all possible isometries.
Problems
Problem. Let ABC be a triangle with the vertices labelled clockwise such that AC = BC and ACB = 90 . Let M AB
be the reflection in the line AB, M AC be the reflection in the line AC, and R be the rotation by 90 counterclockwise
around B. Identify the composition R M AB M AC .
Proof. The idea is to use the theorem we proved earlier which states that
if triangles ABC and A0 B0 C 0 are congruent, then there is a unique isometry such that f ( A) = A0 ,
f ( B) = B0 and f (C ) = C 0 .
What this means is that we can solve problems like
this one using the following simple strategy. Find
three points which form a triangle and see where the
composition of isometries takes them. Next, its time
to guess what the isometry is. If your guess is correct for the three vertices of the triangle, then it must
be correct. And this is because the theorem above
guarantees that if you know what an isometry does
to three corners of a triangle, then you know what the
isometry does to every point in the plane.
The diagram above shows triangle ABC drawn on a grid of squares. Since we want to choose three points
which form a triangle, we may as well choose the points A, B and C.
Its easy to check that M AC ( A) = A, M AB ( A) = A and R( A) = P.
In other words, R M AB M AC ( A) = P.
56
2.1. Isometries
Its easy to check that M AC ( B) = Q, M AB ( Q) = R and R( R) = Q.

In other words, R M AB M AC ( B) = Q.
Its easy to check that M AC (C ) = C, M AB (C ) = S and R(S) = C.
In other words, R M AB M AC (C ) = C.
So can you think of an isometry which takes A to P, B to Q and C to C? If you think hard enough, you
should realise that its just a rotation by 180 around C. So weve managed to deduce that the composition
R M AB M AC is a rotation by 180 around C.
Problem. Let ABCD be a rectangle with the vertices labelled counterclockwise such that BC = 2AB. Let
M AB be the reflection in the line AB;
R B be the counterclockwise rotation by 90 about B;
TDB be the translation which takes D to B; and
GCD be the glide reflection in the line CD which takes C to D.
Identify the composition M AB R B TDB GCD .
Proof. The diagram below shows rectangle ABCD drawn on a grid of squares. Since we want to choose three
points which form a triangle, we may as well choose the points A, B and C.
Its easy to check that GCD ( A) = E, TDB ( E) = D, R B ( D ) = F and M AB ( F ) = G.
In other words, M AB R B TDB GCD ( A) = G.
Its easy to check that GCD ( B) = H, TDB ( H ) = C, R B (C ) = I, and M AB ( I ) = I.
In other words, M AB R B TDB GCD ( B) = I.
Its easy to check that GCD (C ) = D, TDB ( D ) = B, R B ( B) = B, and M AB ( B) = B.
In other words, M AB R B TDB GCD (C ) = B.
F
So can you think of an isometry which takes A to G, B to I and C to B? If you think hard enough, you should
realise that its a rotation, although you might not be sure of where the centre lies. However, we can use the
fact that if a rotation takes X to Y, then the centre of rotation must lie on the perpendicular bisector of XY. In
particular, the centre of the rotation that were interested in must lie on the perpendicular bisector of AG as
well as the perpendicular bisector of BI. And theres only one point which does that namely, the point O
labelled in the diagram above. Its now easy to deduce that the composition must be a rotation about O by
AOG = 90 in the clockwise direction.
57
2.1. Isometries
Archimedes
Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematician
who is widely held to be the greatest mathematician
of antiquity and one of the greatest of all time. Living from about 287 BC to 212 BC, his thoughts on
mathematics were far ahead of his time. He used a
technique called the method of exhaustion to calculate areas under parabolas and give a very accurate
approximation of the number . He also applied this
technique to prove that a sphere which fits perfectly
inside a cylinder has two-thirds of its surface area as
well as two-thirds of its volume. He regarded this as
the greatest of his mathematical achievements and
asked for a diagram of a sphere inside a cylinder to
be placed on his tombstone. Archimedes method of
exhaustion was a precursor to the modern day differential and integral calculus which was discovered
nearly two thousand years later.
tury AD and the pages subsequently erased, folded

in half, and reused for a Christian text. Fortunately,
the erasure was incomplete and we can now read
Archimedes work after scientific and scholarly work
over the past ten years involving digital image processing using ultraviolet, infrared and X-ray technology.
Although Archimedes had built many machines of

war to keep the Romans out, they finally managed to
capture his home town of Syracuse. Apparently, one
Roman soldier happened to find him hard at work
on a geometry problem. Archimedes was so transfixed that he never noticed the soldier nor even the
fact that the city had been taken. When Archimedes
refused to follow the soldier until he had finished
solving the problem, the soldier decided to run his
sword through him, despite orders to keep him alive.
Its quite common for a mathematician to be multi- And that was the end of Archimedes.
talented and Archimedes was certainly no exception.
He is also renowned as a physicist, engineer, inventor,
and astronomer. Among his great discoveries and
inventions are the foundations of hydrostatics, the
explanation of the principle of the lever, machines to
be used in siege warfare, and many many more. He is
the one who is said to have cried Eureka! and ran
through the streets of Syracuse naked upon discovering the principle of buoyancy while in the bathtub.
Another story about Archimedes is that his servants
needed to take him against his will to the baths. And
while they bathed him and anointed him with oils,
he would be drawing diagrams on his body with the
oils, such was his enthusiasm for geometry.
The mathematical writings of Archimedes were not
particularly well known throughout antiquity. However, the few copies which survived through to the
Middle Ages became an influential source of ideas for
scientists. Amazingly, previously unknown works of
Archimedes were discovered in 1906. These writings,
now known as the Archimedes Palimpsest, provide
new insights into how he obtained mathematical results. We are quite lucky to have them because this
copy of his writings had been made in the tenth cen-
58
2.2. Symmetry and Groups
Direct and Opposite Isometries

Consider a triangle ABC in the plane such that the vertices A, B, C occur counterclockwise around the
boundary of the triangle. If you apply an isometry to the triangle, then the result will be a triangle where the
vertices A, B, C can occur clockwise or anticlockwise. If the orientation stays the same, then we say that the
isometry is direct but if the orientation changes, then we say that the isometry is opposite.
A0
direct
C0
B0
A0
C
opposite
C0
B0
Remember that we classified the isometries into four types translations, rotations, reflections and glide
reflections. Its easy to see which of these are direct and which are opposite.
Every single translation is a direct isometry.
Every single rotation is a direct isometry.
Every single reflection is an opposite isometry.
Every single glide reflection is an opposite isometry.
One of the nice things about composition of direct and opposite isometries is that they behave very much like
multiplication of positive and negative numbers. This should be obvious when you compare the following
two multiplication tables which have the same underlying structure. Were going to be looking at many
multiplication tables like this and examining their underlying structure, so keep this example in mind.
dir
opp
pos
neg
dir
opp
dir
opp
opp
dir
pos
neg
pos
neg
neg
pos
Fixed Points of Isometries

A fixed point of an isometry f is a point P such that f ( P) = P in other words, a point which does not get
moved by the isometry. Remember that we classified the isometries into four types translations, rotations,
reflections and glide reflections. Its easy to see which of these have fixed points and which of these dont.
59
Every single translation which is not the identity has no fixed points.
Every single rotation has one fixed point namely, the centre of rotation.
Every single reflection has infinitely many fixed points namely, the points on the mirror.
Every single glide reflection which is not a reflection has no fixed points.
Putting this information together with our knowledge of direct and opposite isometries, we have the
following table. As long as the isometry were interested in is not the identity, this table allows us to deduce
the type of an isometry just by knowing whether its direct or opposite and whether or not it has fixed points.
isometry
direct or opposite
fixed points
translation
rotation
reflection
glide reflection
direct
direct
opposite
opposite
no
yes
yes
no
Symmetry in the Plane

So we now know something about isometries but what does this all have to do with symmetry? Well,
were now in a position where we can define what we mean by a symmetry, at least in the realm of Euclidean
geometry. Informally, a symmetry of a geometric shape will be something we can do to the Euclidean plane
while someones back is turned so that when they turn around again, the shape will look exactly the same.
More precisely, given a set X of points in the plane it could be finite or infinite a symmetry of X is an
isometry which leaves the set X unchanged. You should think of X as a black and white picture, where the
points in the plane coloured black are those that belong to X while the points in the plane coloured white are
those that dont belong to X.
Note that the isometry doesnt have to leave every point of X exactly where it is that would be way too
restrictive but only has to leave X as a whole exactly where it is. By this precise mathematical definition,
every single subset of the Euclidean plane, no matter how crazy it looks, has at least one symmetry namely,
the identity isometry. Our intuitive notion of a shape being symmetric corresponds to the mathematically
precise fact that it has a symmetry which is not the identity.
Example. The following diagram lists the letters of the alphabet and below it, the number of symmetries
that it has. You should check to see that all the numbers are correct and, for each letter, determine what the
isometries are which leave the letter exactly where it is.
A B C D E F G H I
2
J K L M
1
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
2
Example. As another example, consider the symmetries of the square ABCD. We can prove that there are at
most eight symmetries, since any symmetry must take the triangle ABC to one of the triangles ABC, BCD,
CDA or DAB. Each of these triangles is isosceles, so there are two ways to map the triangle ABC to each of
them. Tally all these up and, as promised, you see that there can be at most eight symmetries of the square.
60
To see that there are, in fact, exactly eight symmetries of the square, we simply need to write them all down.
Below, we give each symmetry a symbol, describe the isometry geometrically, and describe what the isometry
does to the vertices of the square.
I : the identity isometry
A A, B B, C C, D D
R1 : rotation by 90 anticlockwise about the centre of the square
A B, B C, C D, D A
A C, B D, C A, D B
A D, B A, C B, D C
Mh : reflection across the horizontal line passing through the centre of the square
A B, B A, C D, D C
Mv : reflection across the vertical line passing through the centre of the square
A D, B C, C B, D A
M AC : reflection across the line AC
A A, B D, C C, D A
MBD : reflection across the line BD
A C, B B, C A, D D
Qualifying Symmetry in the Plane

So were now in a position where we can quantify in other words, count the symmetries of a shape.
However, it will be much more interesting to qualify in other words, examine the structure of the
symmetries of a shape.16
Earlier, we stated that the letters H and X each have four symmetries. Not only do they have the same
number, but their symmetries also seem to have a similar structure there is the identity, rotation by 180 ,
reflection in a horizontal axis, and reflection in a vertical axis. So in some sense, the letters H and X not only
have the same quantity of symmetries, but also the same quality of symmetries, whatever that might mean.
16 People who dont know what mathematics is about seem to think that it is about quantifying in other words, counting things,
when it is really about qualifying in other words, examining the structure of things.
61
A slightly more interesting example is to compare the symmetries of the letters A and B, both of which have
two symmetries. This time, however, the symmetries of the letter A are the identity and reflection in a vertical
axis, while the symmetries of the letter B are the identity and reflection in a horizontal axis. So it seems that
the letters A and B have the same quantity of symmetries, but not the same quality or do they? On further
thought, if we consider the letter B to be simply made up of a set of points in the plane, who cares which way
is up, down, left or right? As a mathematical object, it is essentially the same thing as , which like the letter
A, has the identity and reflection in a vertical axis as its symmetries.
One crucial observation about the symmetries of an object is that if you compose two of them, then the result
is always a symmetry. This means that if you find some symmetries of an object, then you can try to find
other ones by composing the ones you already have. The composition of symmetries captures their structure
in a way that can be represented by a sort of multiplication table.
Example. Lets continue with our example from earlier, which involved the symmetries of a square. We were
able to verify that there are eight symmetries, each of which we gave a name. We may now use these to fill
out a table which describes precisely how these symmetries compose with each other. Note that if you want
to work out the entry corresponding to the row labelled A and the column labelled B, then the entry should
be A B. Remember that this is the composition B followed by A, because we always apply the isometry on
the right before the one on the left. You should carefully check the following table to make sure that you
understand exactly how to construct it on your own.
R1
R2
R3
Mh
Mv
M AC
MBD
I
R1
R2
R3
Mh
Mv
M AC
MBD
I
R1
R2
R3
Mh
Mv
M AC
MBD
R1
R2
R3
I
M AC
MBD
Mv
Mh
R2
R3
I
R1
Mv
Mh
MBD
M AC
R3
I
R1
R2
MBD
M AC
Mh
Mv
Mh
MBD
Mv
M AC
I
R2
R3
R1
Mv
M AC
Mh
MBD
R2
I
R1
R3
M AC
Mh
MBD
Mv
R1
R3
I
R2
MBD
Mv
M AC
Mh
R3
R1
R2
I
The set of symmetries of a subset X of the plane is called the symmetry group of X. The multiplication table
describing how the symmetries of X compose with each other is called the Cayley table of the symmetry
group. We should note the following things about the Cayley table we have just written down.
It is not true that A B = B A for all choices of A and B. In particular, you can see in the table
that MBD Mv = R3 while Mv MBD = R1 . This means that Cayley tables are not all that similar to
multiplication tables the entries are not symmetric when you flip along the diagonal, a property
which multiplication tables obey.
Every row and column contains every element of the symmetry group exactly once. We will restate
and prove this property which I will refer to as the sudoku property later on.
As we mentioned earlier, the whole table of entries is not symmetric when you flip along the diagonal.
However, the location of the entries which are I is symmetric when you flip along the diagonal. Another
way to say this is that if A B = I, then B A = I as well.
62
Properties of Symmetry Groups

Symmetry is a very far-reaching idea in mathematics and extends way beyond the notion of symmetry which
we have defined. Indeed, we have only defined symmetries for subsets of the Euclidean plane, while the
notion of symmetry applies to many, many other things. As a simple example, consider the expressions
x + 2y and x + y. To many a mathematician, the first expression does not seem symmetric, because swapping
x and y changes it. On the other hand, the second expression does seem symmetric, because swapping x
and y results in y + x which, although it may look different, is exactly the same expression. This example is
so far removed from geometry that, to widen our definition of symmetry to incorporate it, we have to do
something rather drastic.
The idea we will use is a relatively modern one in mathematics. Take the set of objects that you are studying
in our case, the symmetries of a geometric shape write down the most important properties that they
obey, and then consider anything at all which obeys those properties. In some cases, this will give a very
useful and interesting set of objects which is far more general than the set of objects that you started with.
This probably makes no sense to you whatsoever, so the best thing to do is probably just to forge ahead. The
following are four very important properties which all symmetry groups obey.
(Closure) If A and B are symmetries, then the composition A B is also a symmetry.
(Identity) There always exists the identity symmetry I such that, for each symmetry A, the composition
I A and the composition A I are both equal to A.
(Inverse) For each symmetry A, there exists a symmetry B such that the composition A B and the
composition B A are both equal to I.
(Associative) For all symmetries A, B, C, the symmetry obtained by composing them as ( A B) C is
the same as the symmetry obtained by composing them as A ( B C ).
The first property states that composition of symmetries is a symmetry, the second that doing nothing is
always a symmetry, and the third that doing the reverse of a symmetry is again a symmetry. Hopefully these
are all obvious statements which you believe are true. The fourth statement is a little different, possibly too
obvious to seem important. It merely says that when you are calculating the composition of three or more
symmetries, you never need to use brackets. So an example like ( A ( B C )) (( D E) F ) is just the same
thing as A B C D E F. Anyway, if you think that this just seems silly, then you may be right, but it
certainly is important mathematically.
The Definition of a Group

So the idea now is to take these four properties and use them as rules to define an object as follows. Whatever
object we obtain is going to behave very similarly to a symmetry group but will capture a notion of symmetry
that is much broader than the geometric symmetries that weve been discussing.
A group is a set G with a multiplication table such that the following four properties hold.
(Closure) For all g and h in G, the expression g h is also in G.
(Identity17 ) There is a special element e in G such that if g is in G, we have e g = g e = g.
(Inverses) For every g in G, there is an element h in G such that g h = h g = e.
(Associative) For all g, h, k in G, we have ( g h) k = g (h k).
17 For
some reason, when you deal with groups, its common to call the identity element e hopefully, this wont be too confusing.
63
Because we are simply assuming that these are the rules of the game and we can never prove them, the
four properties above are often called the group axioms. Hopefully you can see that the definition mimics
the four properties of symmetry groups which we discussed earlier. So, in some sense, you can think of the
elements of G as the symmetries of some object, although that object may or may not be geometric and may
be something you cant even imagine.
Some Examples of Groups

Its a good habit, whenever anyone throws a mathematical definition at you, to think of as many examples as
you can. So here are some simple examples of groups. You should take each one and verify in your own
mind why it obeys the group axioms listed above.
The set of symmetries of any subset of the plane, where represents composition, is a group. We know
that this has to be true, because we constructed the definition of a group so that the set of symmetries
of any subset of the plane would be an example.
The set of all isometries, where represents composition, is a group. Actually, this is just a particular
case of the example above, where the subset of the plane that we take is the empty set consisting of no
points.
The real numbers, where represents addition, is a group. In this case, the identity is the number 0 and
the inverse of x is the number x. The fact that addition of numbers is associative is just something we
always take for granted.
The set of integers, where represents addition, is a group. If we call this group Z and the group in the
previous example R, note that Z is a group which lives inside of R, so we say that Z is a subgroup of R.
The positive real numbers, where represents multiplication, is a group. In this case, the identity is
the number 1 and the inverse of x is the number 1x . If represents multiplication, then you know that
the number 0 cannot be a part of the group, because it has no inverse. In fact, you can just remove the
number 0 from the real numbers to obtain another example of a group where represents multiplication.
The set of all m n matrices, where represents addition, is a group. In this case, the identity is the zero
matrix and the inverse of a matrix M is the matrix M. The fact that addition of matrices is associative
follows directly from the fact that addition of numbers is associative.
The set of all n n matrices with determinant 1, where represents multiplication, is a group. You need
the condition that the determinant is 1 or at least, something similar to it to get rid of examples
like the zero matrix which have no inverse. In this case, the fact that multiplication of matrices is
associative is something you may have taken for granted but is definitely not immediately obvious. Try
to prove it even just for 2 2 matrices and youll see what I mean.
The set of two numbers {1, 1}, where represents multiplication, is a group. In this case, the identity
is the number 1 and the inverse of each element is itself. Note that the Cayley table for this group looks
remarkably similar to the two tables we wrote down when talking about direct and opposite isometries,
just with some of the names changed.
In fact, its a good habit, whenever anyone throw a mathematical definition at you, to also think of counterexamples. Obviously, examples of things which arent groups are easy to come up with a banana, a
hippopotamus, your index finger, and so on. However, can you think of something which obeys the group
axioms except for the identity property, something which obeys the group axioms except for the inverse
property, and something which obeys the group axioms except for the associative property?
64
Three Special Types of Group

The examples of groups that we have seen, as special as they are, will not feature very much in this course.
But there are three types of groups which will, and they are known as dihedral groups, cyclic groups and
symmetric groups.
Dihedral Groups Dn
We can describe the dihedral group Dn as the symmetries of the regular polygon with n sides.18 The
case n = 4 amounts to studying the symmetries of a square, which we considered earlier. We noted
then that there are four rotations (including the identity) and four reflections which are symmetries of
the square. In the general case, there are n rotations (including the identity) and n reflections which are
symmetries of the regular polygon with n sides. Therefore, the group Dn contains 2n elements.
The diagram below shows a regular polygon with eight sides and the mirrors corresponding to the
eight reflective symmetries.
Cyclic Groups Cn
We can describe the cyclic group Cn as the symmetries of the decorated regular polygon with n sides.
The diagram below shows a decorated regular polygon with eight sides and hopefully youll be able to
draw a decorated regular polygon with any number of sides. The extra decoration removes all of the
reflections as symmetries, but keeps all of the rotations. Another way to describe the cyclic group Cn is
as the set of direct symmetries of a regular polygon with n sides. Either description you decide to use,
you see that the group Cn contains n elements.
18 A
regular polygon is just a polygon whose side lengths are all equal and whose angles are all equal.
65
Symmetric Groups Sn
The elements of the group Sn are simply the permutations of the numbers from 1 up to n. For example,
the group S3 contains the following six elements these are the ways to write the numbers 1, 2, 3 in
some order.
123 132 213 231 312 321
You should think of the element abc as the function which takes a number from the set {1, 2, 3} and
spits out a number from the set {1, 2, 3} in the following way.
1a
2b
3c
In this group, the stands for composition of these permutations maybe an example is the best way
to illustrate this. Suppose that we want to determine which permutation corresponds to the product
132 231. The permutation 231 takes
12
23
31
11
23
3 2.
while the permutation 132 takes

Lets see where the permutation 132 231 takes the number 1. We always start from the rightmost
permutation which, in this case, is 231. This takes 1 to 2 and this 2 is then fed into the next permutation
along which, in this case, is 132. This takes 2 to 3, so the composition 132 231 takes 1 to 3.
Now lets see where the permutation 132 231 takes the number 2. We always start from the rightmost
Finally, lets see where the permutation 132 231 takes the number 3. We always start from the rightmost
Putting all of these facts together, we see that the composition 132 231 is a permutation which takes 1
to 3, 2 to 2 and 3 to 1 and this resulting permutation we have called 321. Therefore, we can write the
composition as
132 231 = 321.
Hopefully, you can see that when you compose permutations in this way, the identity of S3 will be the
element weve described as 123. Thats because this permutation does nothing it takes 1 to 1, 2 to 2
and 3 to 3.
Problems
Problem. Let ABC be a triangle with the vertices labelled clockwise such that AC = BC and ACB = 90 . Let M AB
be the reflection in the line AB, M AC be the reflection in the line AC, and R be the rotation by 90 counterclockwise
around B. Identify the composition R M AB M AC .
If X denotes the composition R M AB M AC , let n be the minimum number of reflections whose composition is equal
to X. Determine the value of n and carefully describe n reflections whose composition is equal to X.
66
Proof. We solved this problem in the previous lecture, but today well give a slightly different solution. The
diagram below shows triangle ABC drawn on a grid of two squares. The composition R M AB M AC must
be direct because its the composition of two opposite isometries and one direct isometry. Its easy to check
that M AC (C ) = C, M AB (C ) = Y and R(Y ) = C in other words, R M AB M AC (C ) = C and C is a fixed
point of the composition. Since the composition R M AB M AC is a direct isometry with C as a fixed point,
it must be the identity or a rotation about C.
Y
To determine which of these cases applies, we consider the location of R M AB M AC ( A). It should be clear
that M AC ( A) = A, M AB ( A) = A and R( A) = X in other words, R M AB M AC ( A) = X and A is not a
fixed point of the composition. Hence, the composition R M AB M AC must be a rotation by ACX = 180
about C.
As weve already learnt with these sorts of problems, its useful to draw the diagram on a grid of squares.
Weve also learnt that its useful to keep in mind the table which characterises isometries by whether they are
direct or opposite and whether they have fixed points or not.
Problem. Write down the Cayley table for the group S3 .
Proof. Weve already seen an example of how the composition of permutations works, but its probably a
good idea to see another example. Makes sure you understand very carefully how the notation and the
process works. Suppose that we want to determine which permutation corresponds to the product 213 321.
The permutation 213 takes
12
21
33
while the permutation 132 takes
13
22
3 1.
Lets see where the permutation 213 321 takes the number 1. We always start from the rightmost permutation
which, in this case, is 321. This takes 1 to 3 and this 3 is then fed into the next permutation along which, in
this case, is 213. This takes 3 to 3, so the composition 132 231 takes 1 to 3.
Now lets see where the permutation 213 321 takes the number 2. We always start from the rightmost
permutation which, in this case, is 321. This takes 2 to 2 and this 2 is then fed into the next permutation along
which, in this case, is 213. This takes 2 to 1, so the composition 132 231 takes 2 to 1.
Finally, lets see where the permutation 213 321 takes the number 3. We always start from the rightmost
permutation which, in this case, is 321. This takes 3 to 1 and this 1 is then fed into the next permutation along
which, in this case, is 213. This takes 1 to 2, so the composition 132 231 takes 3 to 2.
67
Putting all of these facts together, we see that the composition 132 231 is a permutation which takes 1 to 3, 2
to 1 and 3 to 2 and this resulting permutation we have called 312. Therefore, we can write the composition as
213 321 = 312.
This means that we can fill in the entry in the Cayley table whose row is labelled by 213 and whose column is
labelled by 321 with the permutation 312. After a while, you can get pretty quick are doing these computations,
and Im sure it wont take you long to check that the resulting Cayley table looks like the following.
123
132
213
231
312
321
123
132
213
231
312
321
123
132
213
231
312
321
132
123
231
213
321
312
213
312
123
321
132
231
231
321
132
312
123
213
312
213
321
123
231
132
321
231
312
132
213
123
68
Galois
Im going to tell you about one of my favourite math
ematicians ever, the French mathematician Evariste
Galois. It seems that Galois was a very passionate
man, particularly when it came to mathematics, politics and women the first made him famous, the
second got him locked up in prison and the third
caused his death. In fact, after being born in 1811,
Galois didnt even make it to his 21st birthday before
dying, all because of a woman.
he tried the following year to submit them, but this

time to another famous mathematician by the name
of Joseph Fourier, it turns out that Fourier suddenly
died and the paper was lost. Later on, Galois tried
once again, this time turning to the famous mathematician Simeon Poisson. However, Poisson declared
that Galois work was incomprehensible, saying that
his argument is neither sufficiently clear nor sufficiently developed to allow us to judge its rigour.
Apparently, Galois wasnt particularly fond of school

you cant blame him and his teachers didnt
recognise his talents at all. In fact, the story goes that
it wasnt until Galois was a teenager and confined to
bed with illness that he really discovered mathematics. Once hooked, it seems that Galois devoted much
of his time to mathematics in the few remaining years
of his life.
Meanwhile, Galois was also involved in the political

turmoil going on in France. He was expelled from his
university for a particularly heated letter concerning
the political situation and then joined the staunchly
Republican artillery unit of the National Guard. At
a large and rather riotous banquet, Galois made a
toast to King LouisPhilippe with a dagger above his
cup, which was interpreted as a threat against the
kings life. Although he was arrested, he was later
acquitted. But on the following Bastille Day, Galois
headed a protest, while wearing the uniform of the
National Guard, carrying pistols, a rifle and a dagger.
For this he was arrested and sentenced to six months
in prison but this quiet time allowed him to return
to mathematics and further develop his ideas.
After school, Galois attempted the entrance exam to
the Ecole
Polytechnique in Paris, but failed due to his
lack of explanation in the oral exam. This was due to
Galois unusual upbringing in mathematics, learning
everything on his own from advanced textbooks. So
instead, he went to the Ecole

Preparatoire, a far inferior institution where he found some professors who
were sympathetic to him. The following year, Galois
tried, for his second and last time, the entrance exam
to the Ecole
Polytechnique and, for reasons we arent
too sure about, failed again despite being more than
qualified. Some say that he thought the exercise given
to him was boring and rather than solve it, decided to
throw the blackboard cleaner at the examiners head.
Another possible reason is that Galois logical leaps
were far too advanced for the incompetent examiner,
which angered Galois. Yet another explanation could
be Galois emotional state, since his father had committed suicide two days earlier.
There were other ways to get ahead in the mathematical world in those days. So Galois decided to write up
his thoughts and send them to the very prestigious
Academy of Sciences. For very mysterious reasons,
the famous mathematician Augustin Louis Cauchy
read these papers but refused to publish them. When
Only one month after Galois release from prison, it

appears that he was involved in a duel. Although
the reasons behind the duel are not particularly clear,
we know that it was the result of a love affair. Some
conspiracy theorists believe that the whole situation
was orchestrated by the government in order to get
rid of the troublemaking Galois, but this doesnt seem
to be too likely. Whatever the reasons behind the duel,
Galois was so convinced of his impending death that
he stayed up all night writing letters and composing
what would become his mathematical testament, a famous letter to Auguste Chevalier outlining his ideas.
Hermann Weyl, one of the greatest mathematicians of
the twentieth century, said that this letter, if judged
by the novelty and profundity of ideas it contains, is
perhaps the most substantial piece of writing in the
whole literature of mankind. Weyls statement is
undoubtedly an exaggeration, but you get the point.
69
Unfortunately for the world of mathematics, in the

very early morning on 30 May 1832, Galois was shot
in the abdomen and died the following day with his
brother at his side, at the tender age of twenty. I always wonder whether Galois would have done better
in the duel had he not stayed up all night writing
down his mathematical ideas.
Galois laid the foundations for a whole new area
of mathematics which we now call Galois theory.
One of the main applications was the problem of
solving the quintic equation. So we all know that
a quadratic equation is something which looks like
ax2 + bx + c = 0 and that its solution is given by the
quadratic formula
x=
The reason why they werent successful is because

there is no formula, and we know that because Galois proved it.19 To understand the significance of
this, you have to realise that to find a formula is easy
because you just have to write it down and demonstrate that it works. But how do you prove that there
is no formula for the quintic equation? Galois did
it by finding some hidden symmetry among the
solutions of polynomials, which led to him using the
concept of groups in his work. In fact, we have Galois
to thank for the word group in mathematics.
b2 4ac
.
2a
Its much less commonly known that there is a formula for the solutions of the cubic equation ax3 +
bx2 + cx + d = 0 which was discovered in the seventeenth century. This formula would probably take me
about a third of this page to write down, but it pales in
comparison to the formula for for the solutions of the
quartic equation ax4 + bx3 + cx2 + dx + e = 0. This
beast of a formula would probably take me pages,
but it was discovered not long after its cubic cousin.
Then, there was a dry spell, when mathematicians
tried to look for a formula for the solutions to the
quintic equation ax5 + bx4 + cx3 + dx2 + ex + f = 0.
They tried and tried but to no avail.
19 Actually, the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel proved the same thing at around the same time, although the ideas in his
proof are not as far-reaching. Unfortunately, Abel also reached an untimely end, dying at the tender age of twenty-six.
70
2.3. Symmetry in the Plane
Recap
Now is probably a good time for a quick recap of our exploration into symmetry so far. Philosophically, our
broad goal is to give a mathematically precise definition of symmetry and see where this definition can take
us. When we began, I tried to convince you that the notion of symmetry in geometry is somehow tied to the
notion of distance. In particular, this observation motivated us to define isometries, functions which take
points in the plane to points in the plane and which preserve distances. Mathematicians are always trying
to classify things, so it made sense to try to classify all of the possible isometries. We discovered that there
were essentially four types namely, translations, rotations, reflections and glide reflections. The definition
of an isometry allowed us to mathematically define a symmetry of a subset of the Euclidean plane as an
isometry which leaves the subset exactly where it is. We observed that the symmetries of a given shape can
be composed with each other and are collectively known as the symmetry group of the shape. Then we
found that the structure of a symmetry group is encapsulated in its multiplication table, which is more
accurately known as its Cayley table.
At this point, we turned to more abstract matters, using four very simple properties of symmetry groups to
define the notion of a group. A group is a set G with a multiplication table such that the following four
properties hold.
(Closure) For all g and h in G, the expression g h is also in G.
(Identity) There is a special element e in G such that if g is in G, we have e g = g e = g.
(Inverses) For every g in G, there is an element h in G such that g h = h g = e.
(Associative) For all g, h, k in G, we have ( g h) k = g (h k).
So, from the seeds of our intuition about symmetry, we have developed the abstract notion of a group. And
now were in a position to delve a little deeper into the mysterious world of group theory.
When are Two Groups the Same?

Quite a while ago, we noted that the letters H and X have the same symmetry group structure the identity,
a rotation by 180 , a reflection in a horizontal mirror, and a reflection in a vertical mirror. We also decided
that the letters A and B have the same symmetry group structure, even though they superficially seem to
be different. The crucial point is that, in both cases, there is the identity as well as one reflection, and that
reflection composed with itself gives back the identity. This all sounded like mumbo jumbo back then and it
probably sounds like mumbo jumbo now but its time now to make all this mumbo jumbo mathematically
precise.
Remember that we looked at the symmetry group of
the square and named its elements
I, R1 , R2 , R3 , Mh , Mv , M AC , MBD .
In fact, we actually wrote out the whole Cayley table for this group, which is an example of a dihedral
group the dihedral group D4 , to be precise.
71
If you dont actually remember, then thats fine because heres the Cayley table once again.
R1
R2
R3
Mh
Mv
M AC
MBD
I
R1
R2
R3
Mh
Mv
M AC
MBD
I
R1
R2
R3
Mh
Mv
M AC
MBD
R1
R2
R3
I
M AC
MBD
Mv
Mh
R2
R3
I
R1
Mv
Mh
MBD
M AC
R3
I
R1
R2
MBD
M AC
Mh
Mv
Mh
MBD
Mv
M AC
I
R2
R3
R1
Mv
M AC
Mh
MBD
R2
I
R1
R3
M AC
Mh
MBD
Mv
R1
R3
I
R2
MBD
Mv
M AC
Mh
R3
R1
R2
I
Now suppose that, due to failing the course, you were forced to take it again next summer.20 And suppose
that I was the lecturer once again and decided to write out the Cayley table for the symmetry group of the
square. If I had instead named the elements
i, r1 , r2 , r3 , mh , mv , m AC , m BD ,
would you think that I had made some sort of mistake? Would you think that this new Cayley table is
different from its capitalised version? No, of course you wouldnt, and rightly so. And thats because the
two Cayley tables have essentially the same structure, even though we are using different symbols for each
element of the group. In fact, by this reasoning, I could even have changed the names of the symmetries of
the square to
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H,
and youd still have to agree that the resulting Cayley table and the resulting symmetry group have essentially
the same structure. It would certainly be silly to treat two groups differently just because youve written their
Cayley tables using different symbols. This idea is most aptly described by Shakespeare himself, in his play
Romeo and Juliet.
Whats in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
Translating this couplet from the world of Shakespearean tragedy to its group theoretic equivalent, we have
the following.
Taking a Cayley table and renaming the elements
Gives a group with the same structure.
So we consider two groups to be the same if the entries in the Cayley table of one can be renamed to give the
Cayley table of the other. If this is the case, then we say that the two groups are isomorphic, which in ancient
Greek means same structure. An even more mathematically precise way to express this is as follows. Two
groups G and H are isomorphic if there exists a bijection that is, a one-to-one dictionary correspondence
f : G H such that
f ( g1 g2 ) = f ( g1 ) f ( g2 ) .
20 Hopefully
none of you will fail the course, so this story is purely hypothetical.
72
Here, the function f is called an isomorphism and simply describes the relabelling of the elements of G into
elements of H. The equation above simply encapsulates the idea that the elements of G should be relabelled
into elements of H in such a way that respects the structure of the two Cayley tables.21 If two groups G and
H are isomorphic, then we usually write this using the shorthand notation G
= H.
Examples of Isomorphisms
The notion of isomorphism is a very powerful one indeed in mathematics, appearing in all sorts of areas
apart from group theory. The definition is truly very simple, but it will be useful to see some small examples
of isomorphisms.
Example. Weve actually already considered an isomorphism between two groups a long time ago, when we
discussed direct and opposite isometries. Back then, we observed that the following two tables seem to have
a very similar structure.
dir
opp
pos
neg
dir
opp
dir
opp
opp
dir
pos
neg
pos
neg
neg
pos
More formally, you can verify that they both correspond to Cayley tables of groups and that the two groups
are isomorphic. In fact, its easy to describe the isomorphism between them as
f (dir) = pos
and
f (opp) = neg.
To verify that this is indeed an isomorphism, all you need to do is check that the following statements are
true, which is quite easy to do.
f (dir dir)
f (dir) f (dir)
f (dir opp)
f (dir) f (opp)
f (opp dir)
f (opp) f (dir)
f (opp opp)
f (opp) f (opp)
Example. Now consider the group lets call it G whose Cayley table looks like the table below left.
R1
R2
a
b
c
c
a
b
a
b
c
b
c
a
I
R1
R2
I
R1
R2
R1
R2
I
R2
I
R1
We know about a group with three elements already namely, the cyclic group C3 . Recall that this consists of
the rotational symmetries of an equilateral triangle or, if you prefer, the symmetries of a decorated equilateral
triangle. Above right is the Cayley table of C3 , where we denote the identity isometry by I, the rotation
21 Note that the on the left hand side of the equation corresponds to composition using the Cayley table of G while the on the right
hand side corresponds to composition using the Cayley table of H, even though Ive used the same symbol for both.
73
by 120 about the centre of the equilateral triangle by R1 and the rotation by 240 about the centre of the
equilateral triangle by R2 . With this notation, an isomorphism f : G C3 is given by
f ( a ) = R2
f (b) = I
f ( c ) = R1 .
I was careful to say an isomorphism because its not a priori clear that there will only be one of them. And,
in fact, there happen to be two possible isomorphisms in this case and the other one is given by
f ( a ) = R1
f (b) = I
f ( c ) = R2 .
Example. At one stage, we wrote out the Cayley table for the symmetric group S3 , which consists of the
permutations of the numbers 1, 2, 3. Another group with six elements is the group D3 , which consists of the
symmetries of an equilateral triangle ABC. The Cayley tables for these two groups are listed below, where I
is the identity isometry, R1 is a rotation by 120 about the centre of ABC, R2 is a rotation by 120 about the
centre of ABC, M A is a reflection through a mirror passing through A, MB is a reflection through a mirror
passing through B, and MC is a reflection through a mirror passing through C.
123
132
213
231
312
321
R1
R2
MA
MB
MC
123
132
213
231
312
321
123
132
213
231
312
321
132
123
231
213
321
312
213
312
123
321
132
231
231
321
132
312
123
213
312
213
321
123
231
132
321
231
312
132
213
123
I
R1
R2
MA
MB
MC
I
R1
R2
MA
MB
MC
R1
R2
I
MB
MC
MA
R2
I
R1
MC
MA
MB
MA
MC
MB
I
R2
R1
MB
MA
MC
R1
I
R2
MC
MB
MA
R2
R1
I
It turns out that these two groups are isomorphic, but an isomorphism is a little tricky to find. And once
youve found it, there would still be thirty-six things to check to make sure that its an isomorphism, at least
if you try to do it the naive way.
We can actually describe the isomorphism quite easily in such a way that it should be reasonably clear that its
an isomorphism, without having to check all thirty-six entries of the Cayley table. Simply label the vertices of
the equilateral triangle 1, 2, 3 rather than A, B, C. Then any symmetry of the equilateral triangle permutes the
vertices and hence, corresponds to a permutation of the numbers 1, 2, 3 in other words, an element of the
group S3 . Since composition of symmetries will behave in the same way as composition of permutations, this
is an isomorphism between D3 and S3 . If you really want to, you can write out the isomorphism explicitly,
and this is what youd get.
f ( I ) = 123
f ( R1 ) = 231
f ( R2 ) = 312
f ( M A ) = 132
f ( MB ) = 321
f ( MC ) = 213
When are Two Groups Different?

If you know what it means for two groups to be the same, then you must also know what it means for two
groups to be different. To prove that two groups are the same remember the technical term is isomorphic
you can just go ahead and find the isomorphism and check that it is indeed an isomorphism. On the
other hand, how do you prove that two groups are different in other words, that there exists no possible
isomorphism? Well, there are various tricks, but here are two very simple ones.
74
Example. Two groups of different sizes cannot be isomorphic. This is simply because if two groups have
different numbers of elements, then there cannot possibly exist a bijection in other words, a one-to-one
dictionary correspondence between them. Therefore, we can say things like C3 and C4 are not isomorphic.
Example. Two groups cannot be isomorphic if one is abelian while the other is not. We say that a group G is
abelian if for all g and h in G, it is true that g h = h g. So in an abelian group, it doesnt matter in which
order you compose elements. In terms of the Cayley table, an abelian group is one where the entries are
symmetric when you flip over the main diagonal.22 Therefore, we can say things like D4 and C8 are not
isomorphic, even though they have the same number of elements. This is because we know that D4 is not
abelian since the two Cayley table entries Mh MBD and MBD Mh arent equal. On the other hand, you can
see from the Cayley table for C8 which Ive written below that its abelian.
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
R6
R7
I
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
R6
R7
I
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
R6
R7
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
R6
R7
I
R2
R3
R4
R5
R6
R7
I
R1
R3
R4
R5
R6
R7
I
R1
R2
R4
R5
R6
R7
I
R1
R2
R3
R5
R6
R7
I
R1
R2
R3
R4
R6
R7
I
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
R7
I
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
R6
Actually, its useful to know that the cyclic group Cn is abelian for all n 1. This is essentially because
it consists of n rotations all with the same centre, and it doesnt matter in which order you compose such
rotations. Its also useful to know that the dihedral group Dn is not abelian for n 3, a fact that you can and
should try to prove on your own.
Properties of Cayley Tables

From a group, we obtain a Cayley table and from a Cayley table, we obtain a group. So any property that
applies to all Cayley tables is really a property that applies to all groups. Here are two important facts that
apply to all Cayley tables and which well prove right now.
Sudoku property : In any row or column of a Cayley table, no element of the group appears twice.
If this were not true, then there might be a row labelled r in which there are two equal entries. So lets
suppose that these two equal entries happen to be in the column labelled c1 and the column labelled c2 .
Of course, part of this setup is the assumption that the columns c1 and c2 are distinct. Now the fact that
these two entries are equal implies the equation r c1 = r c2 . Well use the group axioms to deduce a
contradiction from this equation in the following way.
r 1 ( r c 1 )
= r 1 ( r c 2 )
( r 1 r ) c 1
= ( r 1 r ) c 2
e c1
c1
22 The
= e c2
= c2
main diagonal is the one which runs from top left to bottom right.
75
To obtain the first line, weve used the inverse property to multiply both sides of the equation by the
inverse of r on the left.23 To get from the first line to the second, weve used the associative property. To
get from the second line to the third, weve used the inverse property. And to get from the third line to
the fourth, weve used the identity property. So we have proved that c1 = c2 , which is in clear violation
of the assumption that the columns c1 and c2 are distinct. This contradiction means that its not possible
for two entries of the same row to be equal in a Cayley table. And by an analogous argument, we also
know that its not possible for two entries of the same column to be equal in a Cayley table.
There are two important consequences of our proof. The first is that if G is a finite group, then every
row and every column of the Cayley table of G must contain every element of G exactly once. The
second is that you can always cancel group elements from an equation.
Symmetric identity property : The entries of the Cayley table in which the identity appears are symmetric when
you flip over the main diagonal.
Another way to say this is that if the identity e appears in row r and column c, then it also appears in
row c and column r. So our goal is to show that the equation r c = e implies that c r = e.
r 1 ( r c )
= r 1 e
( r 1 r ) c = r 1
ec
= r 1
= r 1
cr
= r 1 r
cr
= e
To obtain the first line, weve used the inverse property to multiply both sides of the equation by the
inverse of r on the left. To get the from the first line to the second, weve used the associative property.
To get from the second line to the third, weve used the inverse property. To get from the third line to
the fourth, weve used the identity property. To get from the fourth line to the fifth, weve multiplied
both sides of the equation by r on the right. And to get from the fifth line to the sixth, weve used the
inverse property. And this completes the proof of the symmetric identity property.
Ive been really meticulous here and broken down these proofs into very basic steps, each one involving at
most one of the group axioms. Its good for you to see all of the gory details of the proof now since these are
our first real proofs in group theory. However, once you get the hang of working with groups, you can take a
lot of shortcuts and not go into quite so much detail.
Finite Symmetry Groups

A while ago, we managed to define the symmetery group of a subset of the Euclidean plane. We used certain
properties which these symmetry groups obey to broaden our definition of symmetry. The resulting object is
a group, an abstract algebraic object which was constructed to behave a lot like a symmetry group. This just
begs the question. . . which groups arise as symmetry groups of subsets of the Euclidean plane?
One phenomenon which occurs in group theory the area of mathematics dealing with groups is the
fact that finite groups have certain qualitative differences to infinite groups. Of course, for infinite groups,
23 It is very important here to say on the left because you would get a different answer if you multiplied both sides of the equation
on the right. And you are definitely not allowed to multiply one side of the equation on the left and the other side of the equation on the
right you must do the same thing to both sides.
76
youll find it pretty hard to write down the Cayley table, but there are various other fundamental differences
between the two. So lets start with the following simpler question. . . which finite groups arise as symmetry
groups of subsets of the Euclidean plane? This question was raised way back in the fifteenth century by
Leonardo da Vinci who was interested in the notion of symmetry in art, particularly in architecture.
We already know that the cyclic group Cn and the dihedral group Dn are finite groups which arise as the
symmetry group of a subset of the Euclidean plane. In fact, we know it because thats precisely how they
were defined. The following result states that these are actually the only finite groups which arise as the
symmetry group of a subset of the Euclidean plane.
Theorem (Leonardos Theorem). If a subset of the Euclidean plane has finitely many symmetries, then its symmetry
group must be the cyclic group Cn or the dihedral group Dn for some positive integer n.
At this point, we should point out that our previous definition of cyclic and dihedral groups only really
worked for n 3. However, its easy enough to define the cyclic and dihedral groups for n = 1 and n = 2 by
writing down their Cayley tables. The Cayley tables of C1 and C2 are as follows. Note that C1 is the symmetry
group for the letter R while C2 is the symmetry group for the letter N.
I
R
I
R
R
I
The Cayley tables of D1 and D2 are as follows. Note that D1 is the symmetry group for the letter M while D2
is the symmetry group for the letter O.
R1
Mv
Mh
I
M
I
M
M
I
I
R1
M1
M2
I
R1
Mh
Mv
R1
I
Mv
Mh
Mh
Mv
I
R1
Mv
Mh
R1
I
You can hopefully see from the Cayley tables for C2 and D1 that theyre isomorphic. However, the groups
C2n and Dn despite having the same number of elements are certainly not isomorphic for any n 2.
For n = 2, you can prove this by nothing that every element of D2 composed with itself gives the identity, a
fact which doesnt hold for C4 . For n 3, you can prove this using our earlier observation that C2n is abelian
while Dn is not.
Dihedral and Cyclic Symmetry

Since Leonardos theorem claims that every subset of the Euclidean plane has either cyclic or dihedral
symmetry, we should be able to find lots of examples of each and recognise the difference between the two
types. Just keep in mind that the main difference between dihedral and cyclic symmetry is that the former
includes reflective and rotational symmetries while the latter only includes rotational symmetries.
77
Example. As examples of dihedral symmetry, we have an apple, the logo for MercedesBenz and The
Pentagon.24
Example. As examples of cyclic symmetry, we have the blades of a windmill, the Isle of Man flag, the
periwinkle flower, the Penrose triangle and the logo for Sun Microsystems.25
Example (Examples of ambigrams). An ambigram is a design or artform that may be read as one or more
words not only in its form as presented, but also from another viewpoint, direction or orientation. The
following shows some interesting examples of ambigrams you should easily be able to determine which
ones have dihedral symmetry and which ones have cyclic symmetry.
24 As with any real object, the symmetry is not quite exact no apple is going to be perfectly circular and have five equally spaced
seeds and The Pentagon doesnt have exactly the same rooms and furniture on all five sides. Also, if you look carefully, youll see that
the drawn logo for MercedesBenz does not really have dihedral symmetry its the three-dimensional object which the drawing
represents which has dihedral symmetry.
25 The Penrose triangle is an impossible object named after the well-known mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose. The logo for
Sun Microsystems is one of my favourites.
78
Ambigrams have been recently popularised through Dan Browns book Angels and Demons. They also
appear on the front cover of the twentieth anniversary collectors edition of The Princess Bride.26
Facts about Finite Symmetry Groups

So how does one go about proving Leonardos theorem? Well, you need a couple of useful little lemmas
under your belt before you can start. In the following, when we say finite symmetry group, we are referring
to the symmetry group of a subset of the Euclidean plane.
Lemma. A finite symmetry group cannot contain a translation or a glide reflection.
Proof. Of course, when we say translation here, we mean a translation which is not the identity. And when
we say glide reflection, we mean a glide reflection which is not itself a reflection. Thats because we already
know that every group of isometries necessarily contains the identity and weve already seen examples of
symmetry groups which contain reflections.
If a symmetry group contains the translation T, then the group must also contain T T, T T T, T T T T,
and so on. These isometries cannot possibly be the same, because they are translations by different distances.
Since these infinitely many isometries cant possibly fit into a finite group, a finite symmetry group cannot
contain a translation.
If a symmetry group contains the glide reflection G, then the group must also contain the translation
T = G G. However, weve already deduced that translations cannot occur in a finite symmetry group, so
nor can glide reflections.
Lemma. In any finite symmetry group, either every isometry is direct or there is an equal number of direct and opposite
isometries.
Proof. Lets call the direct isometries R1 , R2 , . . . , Rm . If there is at least one opposite isometry, then lets call
the opposite isometries M1 , M2 , . . . , Mn . So our finite symmetry group has m direct isometries and n opposite
isometries, and our goal is to prove that m = n.
26 Ive never read anything by Dan Brown, so I cant comment on this book, but I can say that The Princess Bride is an excellent film, at
least in my opinion.
79
Suppose that M is any one of the opposite isometries. Then M R1 , M R2 , . . . , M Rm are all opposite
isometries since they are compositions of direct and opposite isometries. Furthermore, they must all be distinct
by the sudoku property of groups. Therefore, { M R1 , M R2 , . . . , M Rm } is a subset of { M1 , M2 , . . . , Mn }
and this implies that m n.
Again suppose that M is any one of the opposite isometries. Then M M1 , M M2 , . . . , M Mm are all
direct isometries since they are compositions of two opposite isometries. Furthermore, they must all be
distinct because by the sudoku property of groups. Therefore, { M M1 , M M2 , . . . , M Mn } is a subset of
{ R1 , R2 , . . . , Rm } and this implies that n m.
The two inequalities m n and n m obviously lead to m = n, and were done.
Problems
Problem. Show that any group with three elements must be isomorphic to C3 .
Proof. Lets call the elements of the group e, a, b, where e is the identity element. Given that e is the identity,
we can fill in most of the Cayley table, as shown below left. In fact, if we use the sudoku property, there is
only one way in which we can complete the table, as shown below right.
e
a
b
e
a
b
a
*
*
b
*
*
e
a
b
e
a
b
a
b
e
b
e
a
We can see that this group is isomorphic to C3 via the isomorphism

f (e) = I
f ( a ) = R1
f ( b ) = R2 ,
where I is the identity isometry, R1 is rotation by 120 and R2 is rotation by 240 .

Problem. The following is a groupoku puzzle a Cayley table for the group G, where some of the entries are missing.
Use the properties which you know about Cayley tables to fill in all of the missing entries. Give full reasoning only for
the first entry of the table that you manage to fill in.
a
b
c
d
e
f
e
d
*
b
*
c
d
f
*
*
*
a
f
e
*
*
*
b
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
e
*
*
*
b
*
*
*
In the lectures, we have seen two groups with six elements the cyclic group C6 and the dihedral group D3 . Prove that
G is isomorphic to one of these groups by writing down an explicit isomorphism. Prove that the cyclic group C6 and the
dihedral group D3 are not isomorphic to each other.
80
Proof.
The first thing to notice from the Cayley table is that a
cannot be the identity since a a 6= a. Similarly, b, c, d
and f cannot be the identity since b a 6= a, c f 6= f ,
d a 6= a and f a 6= a. But every group has to have
an identity so in this case, it must be e. This allows
us to fill in all of the entries of the Cayley table in the
row and column labelled by e.
Now we use the sudoku property to fill out the rest
of the table. As an example, consider the c b entry.
Since its in the same row as entries equal to b and
c and in the same column as entries equal to a, b, d
and f , the only possibility left is that c b = e. Using
this strategy, we can fill in all of the missing entries to
give the complete table.
a
b
c
d
e
f
e
d
*
b
a
c
d
f
*
*
b
a
f
e
*
*
c
b
*
*
*
*
d
*
a
b
c
d
e
f
*
*
b
*
f
*
a
b
c
d
e
f
e
d
f
b
a
c
d
f
e
c
b
a
f
e
d
a
c
b
b
c
a
f
d
e
a
b
c
d
e
f
c
a
b
e
f
d
The group G is isomorphic to C6 , which is the symmetry group formed by the rotational isometries of a
regular hexagon. If we write the elements of C6 as follows, then its Cayley table will look like the one below.
R1 : rotation by 60 counterclockwise
R2 : rotation by
120
counterclockwise

R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
I
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
I
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
I
R2
R3
R4
R5
I
R1
R3
R4
R5
I
R1
R2
R4
R5
I
R1
R2
R3
R5
I
R1
R2
R3
R4
An explicit isomorphism F : G C6 is given by the equations

F ( a ) = R3
F ( b ) = R1
F ( c ) = R5
F ( d ) = R4
F (e) = I
F ( f ) = R2 .
This is certainly not the only isomorphism possible. To find one, you can use the fact that the identity in G
must map to the identity in D2 . After this, the problem can be finished with a little trial and error.
Note that C6 is an abelian group and, in fact, so are all cyclic groups. On the other hand, D3 is not abelian, so
C6 cannot be isomorphic to D3 .
Problem. Prove that a group G can only have one identity. In other words, prove that there is only one e G such
that e g = g e = g for all g G.
Proof. This proof is so short that it can be hard to find. The idea is to argue by contradiction so suppose
that there is a group with two elements which could be the identity and call them e and f . What well do
now is show that they must actually be the same element. Since e is an identity, it follows that e f = f and
since f is an identity, it follows that e f = e. And theres the proof, since this means that e = f .
81
Cayley
Arthur Cayley, between his birth in 1821 and his ested in symmetries, which is why the multiplication
death in 1895, was a British mathematician who also tables for groups are usually known as Cayley tables.
worked as a lawyer. As a child, Cayley enjoyed
solving math problems for amusement and when he
entered Trinity College, Cambridge, he excelled in
Greek, French, German, and Italian, as well as mathematics.
Cayley only became a lawyer because he had a pretty
limited fellowship, but this didnt seem to slow his
mathematics down. Another well-known British
mathematician by the name of James Joseph Sylvester,
was in a similar position to Cayley and became an
actuary in London. The two would walk together
around the courts, discussing mathematics. It was
during this fourteen-year span of his life that Cayley
produced over two hundred mathematical papers. At
the age of 42, Cayley was offered a prestigious professorship at Cambridge. He never regretted giving
up his lucrative practice for a modest salary because
it enabled him to end the divided allegiance between
law and mathematics, and to devote his energies to
the pursuit which he liked best.
If youve studied some linear algebra, then you may
already have come across a result of Cayleys known
as the CayleyHamilton theorem. He was very inter-
82
2.4. Crystals, Friezes and Wallpapers
More Facts about Finite Symmetry Groups

Last time we proved that a finite symmetry group cannot contain a translation or a glide reflection. We also
discovered that in any finite symmetry group, either every isometry is direct or there is an equal number of
direct and opposite isometries. Now we just need a few more facts before we can put the pieces together to
obtain Leonardos Theorem.
Lemma. In a finite symmetry group, every rotation must have the same centre.
Proof. Suppose that our finite symmetry group has a rotation R1 with centre O1 and a rotation R2 with centre
O2 . Obviously, our goal is to prove that O1 = O2 . Consider the composition R21 R11 R2 R1 it must
be a direct isometry and, due to the way that rotations compose together, it must actually be a translation.27
But we already know that our group cant contain translations which arent the identity obviously this
means that the composition R21 R11 R2 R1 must in fact be the identity.
Therefore, we know that R21 R11 R2 R1 (O1 ) = O1 from which it follows that R21 R11 R2 (O1 ) = O1 .
If we apply R2 to both sides, the R2 and the R21 on the left hand side knock each other out and the equation
simplifies to R11 R2 (O1 ) = R2 (O1 ). Now we apply R1 to both sides so that the R1 and the R11 on the left
hand side knock each other out and the equation simplifies yet again to
R1 R2 (O1 ) = R2 (O1 ).
Another way to say the same thing is that R2 (O1 ) is a fixed point of R1 . However, since R1 is a rotation,
we know that it has a unique fixed point, which we have called O1 . So we can deduce that R2 (O1 ) = O1 .
Another way to say the same thing is that O1 is a fixed point of R2 . However, since R2 is a rotation, we know
that it has a unique fixed point, which we have called O2 . So weve deduced that O1 = O2 .
A simple consequence of the previous result is the following.
Lemma. In a finite symmetry group, every mirror of a reflection passes through the same point.
Proof. If there is only one reflection in the finite symmetry group, then there is nothing to prove. If there are
at least two mirrors, then you can compose the corresponding reflections to obtain rotations. By the previous
lemma, we know that all of these rotations have the same centre O.
Now suppose that two mirrors meet at a point P. Then the composition of the corresponding reflections is a
rotation about P. But weve already stated that this rotation, since it belongs to our finite symmetry group,
must have centre O. Therefore, the two mirrors must have met at O and it follows that every mirror passes
through O.
One final result that well need to use is the following little lemma. Well leave the proof of this as an exercise
for the enthusiastic reader.
Lemma. In a finite symmetry group, the rotations are of the form I, R, R2 , R3 , . . . , Rn1 for some rotation R.
27 Expressions like R1 R1 R R which take the form a b a1 b1 are known as commutators and are incredibly useful in
2
1
2
1
group theory and other areas of mathematics.
83
The Proof of Leonardos Theorem

Recall that Leonardos theorem states that if a subset of the Euclidean plane has finitely many symmetries,
then its symmetry group must be the cyclic group Cn or the dihedral group Dn for some positive integer n.
Most of the mathematical content in the proof of Leonardos theorem is in the lemmas we proved above. All
we need to do now is fit the pieces of the puzzle together as follows.
Proof.
Suppose that someone gives you a finite symmetry group. By the lemma proved earlier, we know
that there are no translations nor are there glide reflections. In other words, every element of the finite
symmetry group must be a rotation or a reflection.
If there are only rotations, then the last lemma above guarantees that the finite symmetry group must
be Cn for some positive integer n. If there are only reflections as well as the identity, then the finite
symmetry group must be D1 . This is because there must be an equal number of direct and opposite
isometries.
So were left with the case that there are both rotations and reflections, in which case there must be
equal numbers of each.28 The first lemma above states that all of the rotations must share the same
centre O while the second lemma above states that all of the mirrors of reflections must pass through O.
We know that the rotations are evenly spaced by the previous lemma, so the rotations must be by the
angles
360
360
360
0 ,
, 2
, . . . , ( n 1)
,
n
n
n
for some positive integer n. If the mirrors were not evenly spaced as well, then there must be two of
them which create an angle strictly less than 180

n . The composition of the reflections through these two
mirrors will then yield a rotation of strictly less than 360

n a contradiction.
Therefore, we can conclude that the rotations are equally spaced with centre O and that the mirrors are
equally spaced and pass through O. But this just means that the finite symmetry group is dihedral.
Frieze Patterns
Lets turn our attention now to infinite symmetry groups. Since weve already seen that a finite group of
symmetries cant contain a translation, an easy way to create an infinite symmetry group is to consider a
single translation T. A symmetry group which contains T necessarily contains the infinitely many elements29
. . . , T 3 , T 2 , T 1 , I, T, T 2 , T 3 , . . . .
Keeping this in mind, we define a frieze pattern to be a subset of the Euclidean plane whose symmetry group
contains a horizontal translation T along with
. . . , T 3 , T 2 , T 1 , I, T, T 2 , T 3 , . . . ,
and no other translations.
28 Here,
29 Here,
were considering the identity as a rotation through an angle of zero.

the notation T n stands for the composition of n copies of T, while T n stands for the composition of n copies of T 1 .
84
A frieze pattern can certainly have other symmetries which arent translations, but there arent too many
possibilities for such other symmetries. Actually, it shouldnt be too difficult to see that they can only come in
four types.
H = a reflection in a horizontal mirror
V = a reflection in a vertical mirror
R = a 180 rotation
G = a glide reflection along a horizontal axis
So for each frieze pattern, we can give it an HVRG symbol, depending on which of these four symmetries it
possesses. For example, a frieze pattern with symbol VRG would have symmetry group which contains a
reflection in a vertical mirror, a 180 rotation and a glide reflection along a horizontal axis, but not a reflection
in a horizontal mirror. If we decide to classify frieze patterns in this way, then we obtain the following result.
Theorem. There are exactly seven types of frieze pattern.
Proof. There are at most sixteen possible HVRG symbols.
none,
H,
V,
VRG,
R,
G,
HRG,
HV,
HR,
HVG,
HG,
HVR,
VR,
VG,
RG,
HVRG
However, the following four observations allows us to exclude some of these examples.
If you have H, then you have G.
If you have V and R, then you have G.
If you have R and G, then you have V.
If you have G and V, then you have R.
You can prove the first of these observations, for example, by composing H and T to obtain G. The other
three facts can be proved in a similar way. If you go ahead and use these observations to eliminate some of
the possibilities, then you should find that there are only seven remaining.
none,
V,
R,
G,
HG,
VRG
HVRG
Of course, this only shows that there are at most seven types of frieze. We still have to demonstrate that each
of these possibilities actually arises, which we accomplish in the following diagrams.
none
HG
V
VRG
R
HVRG
G
85
The mathematician John Conway who often has his own spin on certain mathematical theorems and
proofs has coined his own set of names for the types of frieze patterns.
HOP (none)
JUMP (HG)
SIDLE (V)
SPINNING SIDLE (VRG)
SPINNING HOP (R)
SPINNING JUMP (HVRG)
STEP (G)
The following diagrams should hopefully explain Conways rather strange nomenclature for the frieze
patterns.
86
The Crystallographic Restriction

Consider applying two translations S and T in different directions to a point P. By taking various combinations of S and T, we obtain a set of points in the
plane. Any set of points in the plane which you can
obtain in this way is called a lattice. You can think of
a lattice as an equally spaced orchard of apple trees.
Of course, the translations S and T are symmetries of the lattice, as is any combination involving S and
T. Another symmetry of the lattice is a rotation by 180 about one of the lattice points. However, it could
be possible that there are other rotational symmetries, although there is some restriction as to what those
rotational symmetries could be. In order to state the theorem more explicitly, lets define the order of a
rotation R to be the smallest positive integer n such that Rn = I.
Theorem (Crystallographic Restriction). If the symmetry group of a lattice contains a rotation, then that rotation
must have order 2, 3, 4 or 6.
Proof. First, we state a simple fact, which the enthusiastic reader is encouraged to prove on their own.
Any group which contains a rotation of order n also contains a rotation by angle
360
n .
Lets call a point in the plane special if its the centre of a rotational symmetry of the lattice of order n. Pick
any special point O and let P be the closest special point to it. By the fact stated above, a rotation by 360
n
about any special point must be a symmetry of the lattice. But, furthermore, any such rotation must be a
symmetry of the set of special points. So if we rotate O about P by 360

n , we obtain a point Q which is special.
For n 7, this point Q is closer to O than P, which contradicts our assumption. So we can deduce that there
is no rotational symmetry of the lattice of order greater than or equal to 7.
Q
360
5
360
n
R
O
P
360
5
If n = 5, then we rotate P about Q by 360

n to obtain another special point R. However, this point R is now
closer to O than P, which contradicts our assumption. So we can deduce that there is no rotational symmetry
of the lattice of order 5. Hence, we may conclude that any rotational symmetry of the lattice must have order
2, 3, 4 or 6.
This result derives its name from the fact that it also holds for three-dimensional lattices. In that case, the
statement is important in crystallography the study of crystals and guarantees that any rotational
symmetry of a crystal must have order 2, 3, 4 or 6. It would be nice if the theorem also held in greater
than three dimensions, but it just isnt true. This is because rotations in higher dimensions behave in a very
different way than in two or three dimensions.
87
Wallpaper Patterns
If a subset of the Euclidean plane has a symmetry group whose translations form a lattice, then we call
that subset a wallpaper pattern. Simply put, theyre patterns that cover the whole plane and are repetitive in
two different directions. Just as we did for friezes, we can try to classify the types of wallpaper patterns
however, the game is much harder this time. It turns out that there are exactly seventeen different types of
wallpaper patterns, although we wont provide a proof here. Well merely content ourselves with knowing
how to identify them. To each wallpaper pattern, we associate an RMG symbol consisting of the following
three numbers R, M and G.
R = the maximum order of a rotational symmetry
M = the maximum number of mirrors which pass through a point
G = the maximum number of proper glide axes which pass through a point
By a proper glide axis, we mean the axis of a glide reflection which is not itself a mirror. The seventeen
possible types of wallpaper patterns are pictured below. For each wallpaper pattern, make sure that you can
find a centre of a rotational symmetry of order R, a point through which M mirrors pass, and a point through
which G proper glide axes pass.
Unfortunately, the RMG symbol doesnt quite distinguish all seventeen wallpaper patterns there are two
which are described by 332. So lets call them 332A and 332B and note that they can be distinguished using
the following observation.
For the wallpaper pattern 332A, its possible to find a centre of rotation which doesnt lie on a mirror.
For the wallpaper pattern 332B, every centre of rotation lies on a mirror.
100
101
110
111
88
200
202
211
220
222
300
332A
332B
89
400
423
442
600
664
Problems
Problem. Prove that if a symmetry group of a frieze pattern contains a reflection in a vertical mirror and a rotation by
180 , then it must also contain a glide reflection.
Proof. If we denote the reflection in a vertical mirror by V and the rotation by 180 by R, then the symmetry
group of the frieze pattern must also contain R V. This composition is an opposite isometry and it is easy to
see that it is either reflection in a horizontal mirror or a glide reflection along a horizontal axis. (Remember
that the centre of rotation for R does not have to lie on the mirror for V.) Since the symmetry group of a
frieze pattern contains a horizontal translation by definition, in either case, the symmetry group of the frieze
pattern must contain a glide reflection along a horizontal axis.
90
So how do you know that the composition R V is a reflection in a horizontal mirror or a glide reflection
along a horizontal axis? One way to see this is to consider what happens to the picture of a left footprint
walking right, above the centre of rotation of R. After applying the reflection V, this becomes a right footprint
walking left, above the centre of rotation of R. And then after applying R, this becomes a right footprint
walking right below the centre of rotation of R. The only way to start with a left footprint walking right and
end up wit ha right footprint walking right is via a reflection in a horizontal mirror or a glide reflection along
a horizontal axis.
Problem. For each wallpaper pattern pictured above, if it has symbol RMG, find on the diagram a point which is the
centre of a rotational symmetry of order R, a point where M mirrors meet, and a point where G proper glide axes meet.
Proof. For example, the diagram below shows the wallpaper pattern with RMG symbol equal to 423 with
a point which is the centre of a rotational symmetry of order 4, a point which 2 mirrors pass through, and
a point which 3 proper glide axes pass through. You can do something similar for the other wallpaper
patterns.
91
Abel
Earlier we spoke about Galois, a mathematician who
proved that it was impossibile to write down a formula to solve the quintic equation, before dying at
the tender age of twenty. In fact, the first person to
give a complete proof of this beat Galois by several
years. He was a Norwegian mathematician by the
name of Niels Henrik Abel and he was born in 1802
before dying in 1829, living a whole six years longer
than Galois.
Abel is still a relatively big deal in Norway there

have been stamps, banknotes and coins bearing his
portrait; there is a crater on the Moon named after
him; and there is the prestigious Abel prize for mathematicians, presented by the King of Norway and
worth about a million dollars in prize money.
Abels proof of the impossibility of solving the quintic

equation was not as deep and far-reaching as Galois
proof, but was nonetheless extremely novel. Unfortunately, his work was extremely difficult to read,
partly because he had to cut out all of the details to
save money on printing. His success in mathematics
gave him some finances to travel around Europe and
meet some of the more well-known mathematicians.
Unfortunately, he contracted tuberculosis while in
Paris and became quite ill. During this time, a friend
of his had found a prestigious professorship for Abel
in Berlin and wrote him a letter to tell him the good
news. Unfortunately, the letter arrived two days after
Abel died.
The early death of this extremely talented mathematician cut short a career of extraordinary brilliance and
promise. Abel had managed to clear some of the
prevailing obscurities of mathematics and paved the
way for several new fields. His complete works were
edited and eventually published by the Norwegian
government. The adjective abelian is derived from
Abels name and is so commonplace in mathematics
that mathematicians dont even bother to capitalise it
any more.
92
3.1. From Polyhedra to Graphs
What is a Polyhedron?
Now that weve covered lots of geometry in two dimensions, lets make things just a little more difficult.
Were going to consider geometric objects in three dimensions which can be made from two-dimensional
pieces. For example, you can take six squares all the same size and glue them together to produce the shape
which we call a cube.
More generally, if you take a bunch of polygons and glue them together so that no side gets left unglued,
then the resulting object is usually called a polyhedron.30 The corners of the polygons are called vertices, the
sides of the polygons are called edges and the polygons themselves are called faces. So, for example, the cube
has 8 vertices, 12 edges and 6 faces.
Different people seem to define polyhedra in very slightly different ways. For our purposes, we will need
to add one little extra condition that the volume bound by a polyhedron has no holes. For example,
consider the shape obtained by drilling a square hole straight through the centre of a cube. Even though the
surface of such a shape can be constructed by gluing together polygons, we dont consider this shape to be a
polyhedron, because of the hole.
We say that a polyhedron is convex if, for each plane
which lies along a face, the polyhedron lies on one
side of that plane. So, for example, the cube is a
convex polyhedron while the more complicated specimen of a polyhedron pictured on the right is certainly
not convex. Note that this definition is just a generalisation of the definition of a convex polygon in the
plane. One very important thing to keep in mind is
the fact that we usually think of a polyhedron as just
the outside, the surface of the shape, and not as a
solid object carved out of wood.
Im sure youve probably seen and played with polyhedra many times before. For example, if youve ever
picked up a standard soccer ball, you might have noticed that theyre usually made by sewing together
patches in the shape of pentagons and hexagons. Other examples include the shape formed by the buckminsterfullerene carbon molecule C60 which is found in soot, the Montreal Biodome at Parc Jean Drapeau and
the pyramids of Egypt.
30 Although its all right to say polyhedrons, the more common plural to use is polyhedra. Thats because the word polyhedron
comes from the ancient Greek words which mean many faces.
93
What is a Graph?
Its quite unfortunate that the word graph means at least two completely different things in mathematics.
One type of graph that you are no doubt already aware of is the graph of a function or equation, plotted on a
set of axes. You probably know that its possible to plot the graph of an equation like y = x2 and you obtain a
shape called a parabola which looks like a large smiley face. We wont talk about these types of graph here at
all so forget you ever heard about them.
For us, a graph will always mean a set of points called vertices, connected in pairs by lines or curves called
edges. We make no assumptions about whether the graph is in one connected piece or not. However, we
usually wont allow loops an edge whose endpoints are the same vertex or multiple edges more
than one edge whose endpoints are the same pair of vertices.
Well call this a graph.
We wont call this a graph.
94
For our purposes, its a good idea to think of a graph as a diagram whose vertices represent people at a party
and whose edges represent friendship. So we should consider two graphs to be the same if they represent the
same party. In particular, the important thing about a graph is not the way that you draw it on paper, but the
relationships that the edges describe. Keeping this in mind, we say that two graphs G and H are isomorphic
if there is a one-to-one correspondence between their vertices such that two vertices are connected by an
edge in G if and only if their two corresponding vertices are connected by an edge in H. For example, the
following two graphs are isomorphic and the labelling on the vertices tells you exactly why.
1
4
5
3
5
2
3
Every Polyhedron is a Graph

The fact that every polyhedron is a graph is a rather simple statement. This is because if you have a
polyhedron and simply ignore the faces, then what you have left over is just a bunch of vertices connected in
pairs by edges in other words, a graph.
A more interesting statement is the following fact. Every polyhedron corresponds to a planar graph in
other words, a graph which can be drawn in the plane without any of its edges crossing. So why is this true?
Well, suppose that your polyhedron is made from some sort of rubbery material, like a balloon. If you pop
the balloon by removing one of the faces, then what remains is a rubbery sheet with the vertices and edges
still drawn on it. Now just stretch this out flat onto a table and there you have your planar graph. Note that
we needed to define our polyhedra to not have holes for this to trick to work donut-shaped and other
hole-possessing balloons just dont do the job.
The Handshaking Lemma

The degree of a vertex in a graph corresponds to a persons popularity index at a party its basically how
many friends they have. So the degree of a vertex in a graph is simply the number of ends of edges which
meet around that vertex. The following diagram shows a graph with each vertex labelled by its degree.
2
1
0
If you give me some numbers and ask me to find a graph with those numbers as its degrees, then the task
is often not possible. Obviously, the numbers have to be non-negative integers, but it turns out that other
things have to be true as well. The most important relation which these numbers must obey is the following.
95
Lemma (Handshaking lemma). At any party, if you ask everyone in the room (including yourself) how many hands
they shook, and add up all of the answers, then you will get an even number. In fact, the number you get will be twice
the number of handshakes that have occurred during the party. In graph theory terminology, this translates into the
following fact in any graph, the sum of the degrees of all the vertices is equal to twice the number of edges.
Proof. At the start of the party, everyone has shaken zero hands because no handshakes have taken place.
Each time a handshake takes place, the number of hands shaken increases by two, once for each person
shaking hands. Therefore, after all handshakes have taken place, the sum of all of the answers must be equal
to twice the number of handshakes. In graph theory terms, this means that the sum of the degrees of all the
vertices is equal to twice the number of edges in the graph.
The Bridges of K
onigsberg
Actually, graph theory began with the mathematician Leonhard Euler in the early eighteenth century. Its
pretty amazing that such a simple mathematical construction took so long to be developed. Its now a
thriving area of mathematics and, due to its very simplicity, has lots and lots of applications. In fact, the
reason why Euler invented graph theory to begin with was to solve a very simple problem, known as the
Seven Bridges of Konigsberg

problem.
The above map shows what Konigsberg

now known as Kaliningrad looked like back in Eulers day.
When the weather was nice, the locals liked to stroll about the town. One thing that many of them tried to
do was to walk around Konigsberg

passing over every bridge exactly once, with no swimming allowed.
Since people tried and tried without success, the problem became known as the Seven Bridges of Konigsberg
problem.
Proposition. Its impossible to walk around Konigsberg, passing over every bridge exactly once.
Proof. Eulers approach was to pick out only the relevant aspects of the diagram. For example, it didnt really
matter that there was a church on the corner of Third Avenue and Fifth Street, nor that there was a troll-like
hobo standing on one of the bridges. So if we remove a lot of the irrelevant details, we end up with a picture
such as the one below left. However, Euler realised that you could simplify the diagram further by creating
one point for every land mass on the map and joining two points each time there is a bridge joining the two
land masses. Of course, the result is just the graph pictured below right.31
31 OK, so I said earlier that a graph cant have multiple edges but we should be allowed to change the rules whenever we like, to
suit our application. So for the purposes of solving this problem, lets temporarily allow graphs with multiple edges.
96
Lets suppose now that its possible to walk around Konigsberg,

passing over every bridge exactly once. Well
start with the obvious fact that this walk must start at some vertex of the graph and end at some vertex of the
graph. Between the start and end, each time we visit a vertex, we must have walked along two edges incident
to it one going in and one coming out. Even though we can visit a vertex many times, this reasoning
tells us that every vertex other than the start and end must have even degree. So to be able to walk around
Konigsberg,
passing over every bridge exactly once, the Konigsberg
graph above must have at most two
vertices of odd degree. But you can see for yourself that all four vertices of the graph have odd degree, an
obvious contradiction.
In honour of Euler, we say that a graph is Eulerian if its possible to walk around the graph, passing over each
edge exactly once. The following theorem tells us exactly when a graph is Eulerian.
Theorem. A connected graph is Eulerian if and only if it has zero or two vertices with odd degree.
Note that if a graph is Eulerian, then it should consist of one piece and such graphs are called connected.
Our argument used to solve the Seven Bridges of Konigsberg

problem tells us that if a connected graph
is Eulerian, then it must have at most two vertices with odd degree. However, the handshaking lemma
implies that no graph can possibly have exactly one vertex with odd degree. Therefore, if a connected graph
is Eulerian, then it must have zero or two vertices with odd degree.
Conversely, its always possible in such graphs to find a walk which traverses each edge exactly once. The
general idea behind the proof is to imagine a drunk person stumbling randomly around the graph, and never
passing over an edge twice. Eventually, they have to get stuck. If theyve passed over each edge exactly once
after they get stuck, then thats great. If not, then they they can always alter their route slightly to pass over
more edges to do this, we need to use the fact that the graph is connected and has zero or two vertices
with odd degree. They can keep altering their route in this way until they finally have a route which passes
over each edge exactly once.
Six People at a Party

There is a very famous result in graph theory which states that, at any party with six people, there must exist
three people who all know each other or three people who all dont know each other. One way to represent
this problem is to draw a graph with six vertices, one for each person, and then draw a red edge between two
people who know each other or a blue edge between two people who dont know each other. So the theorem
can be rephrased in graph theoretic terms in the following way. Prove that if, in a graph with six vertices,
every pair of vertices is connected by an edge coloured red or blue, then there must exist a red triangle or a
blue triangle. In fact, to make life easier, lets define the complete graph Kn to be the graph with n vertices such
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that every pair of vertices is connected by an edge. Then the six people at a party problem can be stated in
the following way.
Proposition. If every edge of the complete graph K6 is coloured red or blue, then there must exist a red triangle or a
blue triangle.
Proof. Consider a random partygoer A of the five edges which are connected to A, note that at least three
of them have to be the same colour. So lets just go ahead and assume that there are three edges connected to
A, all of which are red. The same argument will apply for the case that there are three edges connected to A,
all of which are blue. Suppose that these red edges connect A to the party people B, C and D. If BC is red,
then triangle ABC is red; if CD is red, then triangle ACD is red; and if DB is red, then triangle ADB is red.
So to avoid a red triangle, the edges BC, CD and DB must be all be blue, which forces triangle BCD to be
blue. Therefore, there must exist a red triangle or a blue triangle in the graph.
Eulers Formula
If you ask me to build a polyhedron which has V vertices, E edges and F faces, then sometimes I wont be
able to do it not because Im incompetent, but because such a polyhedron may not exist. In fact, Euler
noticed that the equation V E + F = 2 holds for all polyhedra. For example, you can check that its true for
the following three examples, where a tetrahedron is just a fancy name for a triangular pyramid.
polyhedron
tetrahedron
cube
soccer ball
4
8
60
6
12
90
4
6
32
In fact, since polyhedra correspond to planar graphs, you might expect Eulers formula to work for planar
graphs as well and youd be right. We have to be a little careful here, because Eulers formula will only
work if you include the region outside the graph as a face. This is due to the fact that when we construct a
planar graph from a polyhedron by flattening it, we had to remove a face first. Another subtle point is that
your planar graph must be connected otherwise, Eulers formula just cannot hold, and you should check
this for yourself.
Theorem (Eulers Formula). For a connected planar graph with V vertices, E edges and F faces, V E + F = 2.
Proof. Im just going to give a sketch proof here, something which is incredibly convincing, but which isnt
actually a complete proof. Suppose that we would
like to calculate V E + F for the graph on the right,
but were just too lazy to count the number of vertices,
edges and faces. Consider an edge, like the one labelled a, which connects one vertex to the remainder
of the graph. If you remove this edge and the vertex
attached to it, then you obtain a new graph with one
less vertex and one less edge. So this new graph has
exactly the same value of V E + F.
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Now consider an edge, like the one labelled b, which separates two distinct faces of the graph. If you remove
this edge, then you obtain a new graph with one less edge and one less face. So this new graph also has
exactly the same value of V E + F. So we can continue removing edges and vertices, without ever changing
the value of V E + F, until we are left with the simplest graph possible, consisting of only one vertex and
hence, only one face. Now we can calculate the value of V E + F for this graph and the answer is simply
1 0 + 1 = 2. Therefore, in our original planar graph, we know that V E + F = 2.
Dual Graphs
Given a planar graph, we can construct a new graph with a vertex for each of the faces of the original graph
and an edge between two vertices if the corresponding faces meet along an edge. This new graph is called
the dual graph. You should draw several examples to convince yourself of the following facts.
The dual graph may have loops and multiple edges, but is always planar.
The number of vertices of the dual graph is equal to the number of faces of the original graph. The
number of edges of the dual graph is equal to the number of edges of the original graph. The number
of faces of the dual graph is equal to the number of vertices of the original graph.
The dual graph of the dual graph is the original graph.
One extremely useful thing to do with a polyhedron or a planar graph is apply the handshaking lemma to its
dual. To do this, you need to know what the degree of a vertex in the dual graph is. However, a vertex in the
dual graph corresponds to a face in the original graph and the degree of a vertex in the dual graph is exactly
the number of edges around the corresponding face in the original graph. Therefore, we obtain the following
result.
Proposition. In a planar graph or a polyhedron, the sum of the numbers of edges around each face is equal to twice the
number of edges.
More on Planar Graphs

As fascinating as graph theory is, were actually here to learn about geometry. And as we saw earlier, one
way that geometry makes contact with graph theory is via polyhedra. In particular, we showed that every
polyhedron corresponds to a graph and, not just any old graph, but a planar graph. We have to take a little
care with the definition of a planar graph, because we say that a graph is planar if it can be drawn in the
plane without any of its edges crossing, not if it is drawn in the plane without any of its edges crossing. So,
for example, although the following graph has been drawn with two edges crossing, it actually is planar, as
you can check for yourself.
Some graphs just arent planar, no matter how hard you try to draw them without edges crossing. The one
with the smallest number of vertices happens to be the complete graph K5 .
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Proposition. The complete graph K5 is not planar.
Proof. To obtain a contradiction, lets suppose that K5 is planar. Given that V = 5 and E = 10, Eulers formula
tells us that, if we could draw K5 in the plane without edges crossing, then we would have F = 7. But it
should be clear that if we could draw K5 in the plane without edges crossing, then every face must have at
least three edges around it this is because K5 has no multiple edges or loops. This means that the sum of
the numbers of edges around each face is at least 7 3 = 21. However, by the proposition above concerning
the handshaking lemma in the dual graph, we know that the sum of the number of edges around each face
coincides with twice the number of edges. In other words, we obtain the inequality 2E 21 which implies
that 20 21. Contradictions dont come more blatant than that, so we may now conclude that there is no
way to draw K5 in the plane without edges crossing in short, K5 is not planar.
You can try and prove in an entirely analogous way that K3,3 is not planar either, although the proof is a little
bit more difficult. A very difficult theorem to prove which is, in my opinion, quite amazing, is the following
result which lets you decide whether or not a graph is planar.
Theorem (Kuratowskis Theorem). A graph is planar if and only if it does not contain a a smaller graph which looks
like K5 or K3,3 .
When I say a graph which looks like K5 , I mean a graph which you can make out of K5 by adding in some
essentially useless vertices along its edges. Heres another amazing theorem which involves planar graphs
and is also quite difficult to prove.
Theorem (Farys Theorem). Every planar graph can be drawn in the plane without edges crossing so that each edge
is represented by a line segment.
100
Euler
Leonhard Paul Euler pronounced oiler, not
yooler was a Swiss mathematician who lived
from 1707 to 1783. He is widely regarded as the preeminent mathematician of the eighteenth century and
one of the greatest of all time. He is the most prolific
mathematician to ever have lived, with his collected
works filling about 75 quarto volumes. He was also
quite prolific in other ways as evidenced by the fact
that he fathered at least thirteen children.
I could go on all day about Eulers contributions to
mathematics and science. For example, he created
graph theory when he solved the Seven Bridges of
Konigsberg
problem; he discovered the Euler line
in Euclidean geometry; he discovered the formula
V E + F = 2 for polyhedra; he introduced the notation e for the natural base of logarithms, f ( x ) for a
function, for a summation, and i for the square root
of negative one; he was the master of the branch of
mathematics known as analysis; he discovered many
theorems in number theory including a generalisation
of Fermats Little Theorem; his influence was integral
in the birth of analytic number theory, a very important branch of mathematics; and he is renowned for
work in mechanics, fluid dynamics, optics and astronomy.
This was called the most remarkable formula in

mathematics by the famous physicist Richard Feynman. In 1988, readers of the Mathematical Intelligencer voted it the most beautiful formula ever and
their poll also included two other formulas of Euler
in the top five.
Eulers eyesight worsened throughout his life and
he eventually became nearly blind in his right eye.
His eyesight worsened so much over time that he
earned the nickname Cyclops. Later in life, Euler suffered a cataract in his good left eye, rendering him
almost totally blind in 1766. Even so, his condition
appeared to have little effect on his productivity, as he
compensated for it with his mental calculation skills
and photographic memory. For example, Euler could
repeat the Aeneid of Virgil from beginning to end
without hesitation, and for every page in the edition
he could indicate which line was the first and which
the last. With the aid of his scribes, Eulers productivity on many areas of study actually increased. In fact,
he amazingly produced one mathematical paper per
week in the year 1775.
Euler discovered many remarkable formulas in his

day for example, he showed that the exponential
function e x could be represented as an infinite polynomial, or Taylor series.
ex =
x1
x2
x3
x0
+
+
+
+
0!
1!
2!
3!
He solved the famous Basel problem which asked for

the sum of the reciprocals of the perfect squares
quite remarkably, the answer is
1
1
1
1
2
+ 2 + 2 + 2 + =
.
2
6
1
2
3
4
Euler also established the following formula concerning complex numbers, the exponential function, and
trigonometric functions.
ei = cos + i sin
101
3.2. Platonic Solids and Beyond
Classifying the Platonic Solids

A Platonic solid is a convex polyhedron whose faces are all congruent regular polygons, with the same number
of faces meeting at each vertex. In some sense, these are the most regular and most symmetric polyhedra that
you can find. Our goal now will be to classify the Platonic solids in other words, hunt them all down.
Theorem (Classification of Platonic solids). There are exactly five Platonic solids.
Proof. The following geometric argument is very similar to the one given by Euclid in the Elements.
Lets say that the regular polygons have n sides and that d of them meet at every vertex. It should be
clear that to form a vertex, you need d 3.
Because the Platonic solids are convex by definition, at each vertex of the solid, the sum of the angles
formed by the faces meeting there must be less than 360 . If the sum was equal to 360 , then the faces
which meet at the vertex would all lie in the same plane and there wouldnt be a vertex at all. And if
the sum was more than 360 , then it would be impossible for the vertex to be convex. By this reasoning,
the angle in the regular polygon with n sides must be less than 360 3 = 120 .
Note that a regular hexagon has angles of 120 so that a regular polygon with more than six sides has
angles which are greater than 120 . Therefore, we only need to consider the cases when n is equal to 3,
4 or 5.
When n = 3, we have faces which are equilateral triangles, all of whose angles are 60 . Using the
fact that the sum of the angles formed by the faces at a vertex must be less than 360 , we obtain
that d must be equal to 3, 4 or 5.
When n = 4, we have faces which are squares, all of whose angles are 90 . Using the fact that the
sum of the angles formed by the faces at a vertex must be less than 360 , we obtain that d must be
equal to 3.
When n = 5, we have faces which are regular pentagons, all of whose angles are 108 . Using the
fact that the sum of the angles formed by the faces at a vertex must be less than 360 , we obtain
that d must be equal to 3.
So, in summary, we know that there are only five possibilities for the pair of integers (n, d) namely,
(3, 3), (3, 4), (3, 5), (4, 3) and (5, 3). We will simply state the fact here that for each of these possibilities,
there is exactly one Platonic solid. To see that there is at least one Platonic solid corresponding to a pair
(n, d), all you need to do is construct it out of regular polygons with n sides, with d of them meeting at
every vertex. On the other hand, to see that there is at most one Platonic solid corresponding to a pair
(n, d) is a more difficult matter, but should seem believable. This is because if you start to glue together
regular polygons with n sides, with d of them meeting at every vertex, then you dont have any choice
in what the resulting shape will look like.
Constructing the Platonic Solids

Of course, if you want to build a Platonic solid the one corresponding to (n, d) = (5, 3), for example
then it helps to know how many vertices, edges and faces are required. So lets have a look at how you can
determine these numbers. If you want to work out the three unknown quantities V, E and F, then it makes
sense to look for three relations that these numbers obey. One relation will come from using the handshaking
lemma, another will come from using the handshaking lemma on the dual, and another is given to us by
Eulers formula.
102
Since three faces meet at every vertex, we know that every vertex in the polyhedron must have degree
three. The handshaking lemma asserts that the sum of the degrees is equal to twice the number of
edges, so we have the equation 3V = 2E or equivalently, V = 23 E. This means that if we know the
value of E, then we also know the value of V.
Since every face is a pentagon, we know that every vertex in the dual must have degree five. The
handshaking lemma on the dual asserts that the sum of the numbers of edges around each face is equal
to twice the number of edges, so we have the equation 5F = 2E or equivalently, F = 25 E. This means
that if we know the value of E, then we also know the value of F.
Now we can use Eulers formula V E + F = 2 and substitute for V and F. If you do this properly,
you should obtain
2
2
E E + E = 2 E = 30.
3
5
From this, we can easily deduce that V = 23 E = 20 and F = 25 E = 12.
You can and should use this method to determine the number of vertices, edges and faces for each of the
Platonic solids and, if you do so, youll end up with a table like the following.
polyhedron
tetrahedron
cube
octahedron
dodecahedron
icosahedron
3
4
3
5
3
3
3
4
3
5
4
8
6
20
12
6
12
12
30
30
4
6
8
12
20
The following diagram shows the five Platonic solids they are called the tetrahedron, the hexahedron, the
octahedron, the dodecahedron and the icosahedron.32 The first three are easier to imagine, because they are
simply the triangular pyramid, the cube, and the shape obtained from gluing two square pyramids together.
32 These names come from the ancient Greek and simply mean four faces, six faces, eight faces, twelve faces and twenty faces,
respectively. Of course, we almost always refer to the hexahedron more affectionately as the cube.
103
Those of you who are fans of role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons you know who you are
may be able to visualise these more easily. This is because such games involve d4s, d6s, d8s, d12s and
d20s, where a dn is simply an n-sided die. Another way to visualise a polyhedron is via a net, a figure which
you can cut out of cardboard and then fold to create the polyhedron. The following diagram shows nets for
all of the Platonic solids.
Platonic Solids in Nature

The aesthetic beauty and symmetry of the Platonic solids have made them a favourite subject of geometers for
thousands of years. They are named for the ancient Greek philosopher Plato who thought that the classical
elements earth, water, air, fire and ether might be constructed from Platonic solids. In the sixteenth
century, the German astronomer Johannes Kepler attempted to find a relation between the five known planets
at that time excluding Earth and the five Platonic solids. In the end, Keplers original idea had to
be abandoned, but out of his research came the realization that the orbits of planets are not circles and the
discovery of Keplers laws of planetary motion.
Each of the five Platonic solids occurs regularly in
nature, in one form or another. The tetrahedron, cube,
and octahedron all occur in crystals, as does a slightly
warped version of the dodecahedron. In the early
twentieth century, it was observed that certain species
of amoeba known as radiolaria possessed skeletons
shaped like Platonic solids the picture on the right
gives an icosahedral example. Also, the outer protein
shells of many viruses form regular polyhedra for
example, the HIV virus is enclosed in an icosahedron.
104
Scientists have also discovered new types of carbon molecule, known as fullerenes, which have very symmetric polyhedral shapes. The most common is C60, which has the shape of a soccer ball, though there are others
which possess the shape of Platonic solids.
Symmetries of Platonic Solids

Its definitely worth mentioning that the whole symmetry game we played for subsets of the Euclidean
plane can also be played for subsets of Euclidean space. We can define three-dimensional isometries and
symmetries of figures in space in an entirely analogous way, although some details are slightly more difficult.
For example, the result that any isometry in the plane is a product of three reflections becomes the result that
any isometry in space is a product of four reflections. Furthermore, there are more types of isometry than just
translation, rotation, reflection and glide reflection they are called twists and rotatory reflections and
you can try to imagine what these might do.
There is also a three-dimensional analogue of Leonardos Theorem, a result which classifies all of the possible
symmetry groups in Euclidean space. Essentially, the result says something like the only symmetry groups
you can get are cyclic groups, dihedral groups, certain slightly more complicated versions of the cyclic and
dihedral groups, and symmetry groups of Platonic solids.
As an example, let me tell you about the symmetry group of the tetrahedron. An isometry has to take a
particular face of the tetrahedron to one of the four faces of the tetrahedron. And once you decide where one
of the equilateral faces ends up, there are still six possibilities, one for each element of D3 . This means that the
symmetry group of the tetrahedron has 24 elements. But we just happen to know a group with 24 elements
and that group is the symmetric group S4 . And if you guess that the symmetry group of the tetrahedron
is isomorphic to S4 , then youd be right. Now you should try to determine how many elements are in the
symmetry groups of the remaining four Platonic solids using the same idea.
Whats Wrong with Eulers Formula?

Were now going to leave Platonic solids behind and embark on a new adventure. Recall that when we
defined what a polyhedron was, we were very careful to say that it had no holes. One of the reasons for
doing this is because it doesnt seem that Eulers formula works when there are holes. For example, consider
the following geometric object which is made by gluing together polygons.
If you count the number of vertices, edges and faces, then youll find that V E + F does not equal 2 at all.
Remember to be very careful if you do this, because the regions shown on the top and bottom in the diagram
105
are not actually faces, since they have holes in the middle of them. All you need to do is divide these regions
into bona fide faces with the help of some extra edges.
Since Eulers formula doesnt work for this shape, there are two things we can do start to cry or try to
make it work. Mathematicians would generally prefer the latter approach. To make Eulers formula work
for more general shapes, you simply need to note that V E + F = 0 in this particular case and, in fact,
V E + F = 0 for any shape which has one hole through the middle of it. In fact, if you try the same thing
for shapes with g holes, youll eventually discover that
V E + F = 2 2g.
So V E + F seems to change when you talk about very different geometric objects for example, objects
with different numbers of holes but seems to be the same when you talk about similar geometric objects
for example, objects with the same number of holes. Another observation is that if we take the geometric
object pictured above and draw it so that it looks a bit curvier, then that doesnt change the number of vertices,
edges and faces, so V E + F doesnt change at all. In fact, we can bend, stretch, warp, morph or deform it
and the value of V E + F wouldnt change.
The Earth
Suppose that you lived a really really long time ago.
Then you would probably believe, as did most people, that the surface of the Earth is a big flat plane.
And what makes you think that? Well, its simply
due to the fact that everywhere you stand, you notice that theres a pretty flat piece of earth immediately surrounding your feet. And since a big flat
plane seems to have this same property, youve simply jumped to the conclusion that the Earth must be
big flat plane. But, as you know, this is rather foolish thinking. There are many geometric objects apart
from the plane which have this property. The sphere
is just one more example, and were going to explore
other shapes that can arise. This idea leads us to study
things called surfaces which well soon talk about.
Topology
The two stories above one about Eulers formula and one about the Earth motivate us to consider
topology, which very roughly studies intrinsic fundamental properties of geometric objects and which doesnt
care about length, size, angle, and so forth. When you study objects in mathematics, you always need to
have some notion of when two of those objects are the same. For example, in Euclidean geometry we have
congruence, in group theory we have isomorphism, in graph theory we have isomorphism, and in topology
we have the notion of homeomorphism. Intuitively speaking, two geometric objects are homeomorphic if its
possible to bend, stretch, warp, morph or deform one so that it becomes the other one. Note that you are not
allowed to cut and glue here.
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A more mathematically precise definition of homeomorphism is as follows. Two geometric objects are
homeomorphic if there exists a bijection in other words, a one-to-one correspondence from one to the
other which is continuous and has a continuous inverse. If two geometric objects A and B are homeomorphic,
then we write A
= B, and we call a bijection from A to B which is continuous and has a continuous inverse a
33
homeomorphism.
Example. The sphere and the cube are certainly homeomorphic to each other. This is because you can take
the sphere and squash it into a box until it looks like a cube. Or, on the other hand, you could take a cube
and blow it up like a balloon until it looks like a sphere. These sorts of deformations are certainly allowed
and show that the two shapes are homeomorphic. For the same sort of reason, a disk and a square are also
homeomorphic to each other. You can probably see why topology is sometimes informally called rubber
sheet geometry.
An explicit homeomorphism in this case isnt too difficult to describe and, if you were really keen, you could
even write down an equation for one. The idea is to stick the sphere inside of the cube and suppose that the
sphere is a light bulb with a source of light at its centre. Any point on the sphere now casts a shadow on the
cube, and this gives a map from the sphere to the cube which is a continuous bijection with a continuous
inverse.
Example. Consider an unknotted piece of string like the one shown below left and a knotted piece of a string
like the one shown below right.
Believe it or not, these two are homeomorphic to each other. Sure, you need to cut the knot open and glue the
ends together again to make the unknotted loop but thats only if you happen to live in three dimensions.
Topology, unlike we mere mortals, doesnt live in any number of dimensions. Intuitively, you can deform
the unknotted loop into a knot if you make those deformations in four-dimensional space. The reason
being that lines can just move past each other in four-dimensional space without hitting. Its just the higher
dimensional analogue of the fact that two points on the line cant move past each other without hitting yet in
two dimensions, they can do so with ease.
If this doesnt convince you, then you can always go back to the mathematical definition of homeomorphism.
Suppose that you wrote the numbers from 1 to 100 along the unknotted loop, in order. You could also do
the same thing around the knotted loop and convince yourself that theres a function from one to the other
which matches up the numbers. Its easy to see that such a function can be made to be a bijection which is
continuous and has a continuous inverse hence, the two are homeomorphic.
33 The
word homeomorphism comes from the ancient Greek words meaning similar shape.
107
Example. A sphere and a torus the surface of a donut are not homeomorphic, and this is a little difficult
to see. And thats because if you want to show that two geometric objects are homeomorphic, then you
just go ahead and find the deformation or homeomorphism that makes them so. On the other hand, if you
want to show that two geometric objects are not homeomorphic, then you need some tricks. This should be
reminiscent of the fact that if you want to show that two groups are isomorphic, then you just go ahead and
find the isomorphism but if you want to show that two geometric objects are not isomorphic, then you need
some tricks. Were going to learn some of these tricks later on.
Problems
Problem. Show that at any party, there are always at least two people with exactly the same number of friends at the
party.
Proof. For this problem, we need to assume that if A is friends with B, then B is friends with A.34 The
problem can obviously be translated into graph theoretic terms as follows.
Show that in any graph without loops or multiple edges there are always two vertices with
the same degree.
Just to be concrete, lets suppose that were dealing with a graph which has seven vertices. The degree of a
vertex in such a graph can only be 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 since there are no multiple edges or loops, by assumption.
Note that there are seven vertices in total as well as seven possibilities for their degrees. This means that if
there arent two vertices with the same degree, then there must be exactly one vertex with degree 0, exactly
one vertex with degree 1, exactly one vertex with degree 2, and so on, up to exactly one vertex with degree 6.
However, this situation simply cannot arise, since a graph with seven vertices cant have a degree 0 vertex
as well as a degree 6 vertex. This is because a degree 0 vertex is connected to no others by an edge, while a
degree 6 vertex is connected to all others by an edge. In party terms, you cant have a loner who is friends
with nobody as well as a social butterfly who is friends with everybody. This contradiction means that there
are always two vertices with the same degree. Of course, our argument can be generalised to graphs with
any number of vertices.
Problem. Does there exist a polyhedron with exactly thirteen faces, all of which are triangles?
Proof. The first thing you should do is try to draw such a polyhedron as a planar graph, keeping in mind that
the outside face has to be a triangle. You can try doing this all day, but what youll find is that the task is
impossible. And hopefully, youll also find that you can have such polyhedra with exactly ten faces or twelve
faces or fourteen faces. What this tells you is that there is something to do with oddness and evenness going
on in this problem and that suggests that we are going to use the handshaking lemma
So now lets suppose that there does exist a polyhedron with exactly thirteen faces, all of which are triangles.
The trick here is to use the handshaking lemma on the dual graph. This asserts that the sum of the numbers
of edges around each face is equal to twice the number of edges. In our case, this means that 13 3 is equal
to twice the number of edges or, in other words, that the number of edges must be 19 12 . Of course, this is
a contradiction so we can deduce that there does not exist a polyhedron with exactly thirteen faces, all of
which are triangles.
34 As
you probably know, such an assumption isnt always true in the real world.
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Problem. If a planar graph with E edges divides the plane into F faces, prove that F
2E
3 .
Proof. For this problem, we need to assume as is usual that the graph contains no loops or multiple
edges. Note that the dual graph has F vertices and, since every face of the original graph has at least three
sides, every vertex of the dual graph has degree at least three. So the sum of the degrees of the vertices in
the dual graph is at least 3F. However, the number of edges in the dual graph is equal to E. So we can now
invoke the handshaking lemma to deduce that 2E 3F, which rearranges to give the desired result.
Problem. Consider a polyhedron all of whose faces are triangles such that four faces meet at every vertex. Determine
the number of vertices, edges and faces of the polyhedron.
Proof. If you want to work out the three unknown quantities V, E and F, then it makes sense to look for three
relations that these numbers obeys. One relation will come from using the handshaking lemma, another will
come from using the handshaking lemma on the dual, and another is given to us by Eulers formula.
Since four faces meet at every vertex, we know that every vertex in the polyhedron must have degree
four. The handshaking lemma asserts that the sum of the degrees is equal to twice the number of edges,
so we have the equation 4V = 2E or equivalently, V = 12 E. This means that if we know the value of E,
then we also know the value of V.
Since every face is a triangle, we know that every vertex in the dual must have degree three. The
handshaking lemma on the dual asserts that the sum of the numbers of edges around each face is equal
to twice the number of edges, so we have the equation 3F = 2E or equivalently, F = 23 E. This means
that if we know the value of E, then we also know the value of F.
Now we can use Eulers formula V E + F = 2 and substitute for V and F. If you do this properly,
you should obtain
2
1
E E + E = 2 E = 12.
2
3
From this, we can easily deduce that V = 12 E = 6 and F = 23 E = 8.
In fact, an example of such a polyhedron is given by the Platonic solid known as the octahedron.
109
Newton
Sir Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day way
back in 1642 and lived a most productive eighty-four
years until his death in 1727. He was an English
mathematician who was also a great physicist, accomplished natural philosopher, prolific theologian
and dedicated alchemist. His Philosophi Naturalis
Principia Mathematica is considered to be among the
most influential books in the history of science. In
this work, Newton described how gravity works and
produced three laws of motion, which gave the most
accurate description of how the universe works for
the following three centuries until around the time
of Einstein. Famously, Newton formed his theory of
gravitation after seeing an apple fall from a tree. The
French mathematician JosephLouis Lagrange often
said that Newton was the greatest genius who ever
lived, and once added that he was also the most fortunate, for we cannot find more than once a system
of the world to establish.
tack on the scientist Robert Hooke, who was short

and hunchbacked. Modest or not, Newton is considered by many to be the greatest scientist who ever
lived. A survey of scientists from Britains Royal Society deemed that Newton has had more impact on the
history of science than Einstein.
To be a great mathematician or scientist, I think that
you have to be motivated by curiosity, which is why
I like the following quote from Newton himself: I
do not know what I may appear to the world, but
to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now
and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell
than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all
undiscovered before me.
Newtons contributions to mathematics and science

are incredibly diverse. In mathematics, he is most
famously remembered for his discovery of calculus,
independently to the German mathematician Leibniz,
but at about the same time. According to Newtons
friends, he had worked out his method years before
Leibniz, but published almost nothing about calculus
until 1693. Meanwhile, Leibniz began publishing his
account of calculus up to fifteen years earlier. It didnt
take long for scientists from the Royal Society of
which Newton was a member to accuse Leibniz
of plagiarism. Thus began an ugly, bitter and controversial dispute between Newton and Leibniz, which
marred the lives of both until the latters death.
Some people believe that Newton was quite modest
about his own achievements, writing that If I have
seen a little further, it is by standing on the shoulders
of giants. However, it is more likely that Newton
was not modest at all and that this quote was an at-
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3.3. Surfaces and Topology
What is a Surface?
For our purposes, a surface refers to a geometric object which obeys the following conditions.
If you pick a point on a surface and look at all of the points close to it, then they should form something
which looks like a disk. (More precisely, every point on the surface has a neighbourhood which is
homeomorphic to a disk.)
A surface must be finite in the sense that you can put it inside your house. (More precisely, a surface
should be bounded.)
A surface must be in one piece, so that you cant have some of it inside your house, some of it outside
your house, and be able to close the door. (More precisely, a surface should be connected.)
A surface should not have boundaries. (More precisely, a surface should not have edges which you can
walk off.)
Weve already seen some examples of surfaces, such as the sphere and the torus. You should convince
yourself that they obey all of the properties that a surface should obey. Note that the plane is not a surface,
because it obeys all of the required properties except for the finiteness condition. A disk is not a surface
because it obeys all of the required properties except for the boundary condition. And a sphere sitting next to
a torus is not a surface because it obeys all of the required properties except for the connectedness condition.
Our goal is to classify all surfaces in other words, hunt them all down. This is going to be a two step
process first, we have to be able to list all of the surfaces possible, and second, we have to make sure that
no two surfaces in our list are homeomorphic to each other. As a start, we have the following examples of
surfaces the sphere which has no holes, the torus which has one hole, a surface which has two holes, and
so on. The technical name for the number of holes on a surface is the genus.
genus = 0
genus = 2
genus = 1
Pac-Man World
Lets change topic a little and look at Pac-Man world, the world in which Pac-Man lives.35 Pac-Man lives in a
world which appears to us as a rectangle on the computer screen.
35 For
those of you who are too young to know, Pac-Man is a classic arcade game in which you control Pac-Man through a maze so
that he eats lots of pac-dots. Its universally considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and
an icon of 1980s popular culture. To be gender neutral, I should also mention Ms Pac-Man, a spin-off arcade game involving a female
version of Pac-Man who looks exactly the same as Pac-Man, but with a bow on her head.
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But his world is much more interesting than just any old rectangle, because when he moves off the right edge
of the screen, he reemerges on the left edge of the screen.
And if you try to move Pac-Man off the bottom edge of the screen, hell reemerge on the top edge of the
screen.
In fact, even if Pac-Man is very naughty and you decide to put him in the corner, you cant hide him because
hell now appear at every corner of the screen.
What this tells us is that Pac-Man world is, in fact, an example of a surface. To see this, all you need to do is
check that the four properties required of a surface are true. It should be clear that no matter where Pac-Man
stands, there is a little disk around him. This is particularly easy to see when he is in the middle of the screen.
But even if he is on the right edge of the screen, there is a patch around him which will appear as a semicircle
on the right edge and a semicircle on the left edge these together make up a disk. Of course, this very
same argument applies no matter which edge Pac-Man decides to stand on. The most tricky case is when
Pac-Man is in the corner of the screen, but weve already seen that he will be surrounded by a disk which
will appear to us as four quarter circles.
Pac-Man world also happens to be finite, because it appears on our finite computer screen. It has no boundary
because Pac-Man can never run off the edge of the world. And it is certainly connected, because Pac-Man
can visit every part of it just by running around eating pac-dots.
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So the obvious question to ask is what surface does Pac-Man live on? Is it one weve seen before, or is it
something brand new? To see what the answer is, we use the following strategy. Note that a point on the
bottom edge of the screen is the same as a point on the top edge of the screen, even though it seems to appear
in two different places. So the obvious thing to do is simply glue these two points together in fact, well
end up gluing the whole bottom edge to the whole top edge. And similarly, well end up gluing the whole
left edge to the whole right edge. So we can think of Pac-Man world as a rectangular piece of fabric which
comes to us with gluing instructions, indicated by arrows. Edges with matching arrows get glued together
with the arrow telling you how the edges should line up with each other.
The diagrams below show what happens first when you glue together the top and bottom edges, and the
second when you glue together the remaining two edges. The result, as you can plainly see, is simply the
torus. Pac-Man lives on a torus.36
Connected Sums
In many branches of mathematics, its useful to take a reductionist approach. For example, when we studied
Euclidean geometry, we reduced all theorems to just a handful of axioms. In group theory, you can slice and
dice groups into pieces called simple groups. When talking about surfaces, there is a very useful way to
construct a new surface out of two old ones which will help us apply the reductionist approach. To find the
connected sum of two surfaces, you simply cut out a little hole from each and glue the two surfaces together
along these holes. Probably the best thing to do is look at the following sequence of diagrams to see exactly
how this works. We denote the connected sum of two surfaces A and B as A # B.
36 This is all a bit of a lie, because Pac-Man doesnt exactly work this way, but I hope you understand the point. Actually, its possible
to take many games on rectangles and turn them into games on tori by gluing the edges of the board together. For example, toroidal
chess is a variant of chess which uses such a board. Of course, the pieces have to start in different locations and the rules have to be
altered very slightly.
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#
cut
glue
Of course, if you have a complicated surface, then you should be able to cut it up into smaller pieces whose
connected sum is the original surface. The obvious question wed like to answer is the following is every
surface the connected sum of just a few surfaces?
One interesting observation is the fact that if you take the connected sum of a surface and a sphere, you
always get the original surface back again. So, in some sense, the sphere is to connected summation as zero is
to addition or one is to multiplication or the identity is to group composition, and so on.
Were now going to ask a very subtle question are there different ways to produce the connected sum of
two surfaces? In other words, if I have two surfaces A and B and you have two surfaces A and B, and we
both try to form the connected sum A # B, then will the results always be homeomorphic? The answer is that
they definitely will be homeomorphic, although there are two issues at play here.
First, we may choose different locations to cut our holes on A and B. Its not too hard to see that
this makes no difference, because you can slide the holes around the surfaces and this corresponds to
bending, stretching, warping, morphing or deforming the resulting shape. In other words, sliding holes
around before forming the connected sum will give surfaces which are homeomorphic to each other.
Second, and a lot harder to see, is the fact that there are always two ways to glue two holes together.
For example, suppose that you have a very thin wall with a small hole in it and a tube like what you
might find on a vacuum cleaner. If someone tells you to plug the vacuum cleaner into the hole, then
you could do it from two different sides of the wall. We wont say too much about why these give the
same result when you form the connected sum. However, it follows from the fact that you can turn a
shape inside out merely by deforming it, especially if you do it in four or more dimensions.
The M
obius Strip
Here is something that you can do in the comfort of your own home, and all you need is some paper, some
scissors, some glue and three dimensions. Cut a long strip of paper and glue the ends together but before
you glue the ends together, give the strip a half twist. The resulting object is called a Mobius
strip. Note
that it isnt a surface by our definition, since it has a boundary. In fact, one of the interesting things about
a Mobius
strip is that it has only one edge, unlike its relative the cylinder, which is formed by gluing the
ends of a long strip of paper together without any twists at all. Furthermore, a Mobius
strip only has one
side, unlike the cylinder. This means that if you start painting one side of the Mobius
strip and come back to
where you started painting, then the whole Mobius

strip will be painted over. Dont just take my word for it
try this at home for yourself.
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The following woodcut by M. C. Escher entitled Mobius Strip II shows some ants walking around a Mobius
strip. The Mobius

strip also appears on the universal recycling symbol. In fact, the Mobius
strip appears in
various places, such as the shape of some conveyor belts, since this allows the belt to wear evenly on both
sides, rather than on just one. They also appear in the design of computer printer and typewriter ribbons.
Unfortunately, as interesting as Mobius

strips are, they arent surfaces and were interested in surfaces.
Fortunately, we can easily make a surface out of a Mobius

strip simply by observing that it has precisely one
edge. Now take a patch in the shape of a disk which also has only one edge. And then glue the two edges
together, so that there are no spare edges remaining. Try as you might, this just isnt possible to do in three
dimensions. However, thats just fine, since we dont always have to draw something which looks like a
surface for it to be a surface. For example, Pac-Man world didnt look a surface and yet we discovered that it
was one, the torus in fact.
One way to think of this surface obtained from patching a Mobius

strip with a disk is as follows. Suppose
that all along the edge of the Mobius

strip are numbers say from 1 to 100 and that all along the edge of
the disk are numbers also from 1 to 100. Suppose that you are an ant walking around the Mobius
strip
and, as soon as you hit the edge of the strip say at the number 73 you suddenly get teleported over to
the number 73 on the disk and so you just continue walking along the disk. If you try and leave the disk, you
get teleported back to the edge of the Mobius

strip precisely where you get teleported back corresponds to
where you left the disk. This is now obviously a surface because every point on the edge of the Mobius
strip
or the patch has a little disk around it made up of one semicircle on the strip and one semicircle on the patch.
The resulting surface is called the projective plane and its definitely not homeomorphic to any of the surfaces
weve previously encountered. This is because all of the surfaces weve seen before have two sides whereas
this new beast only has one. We say that a surface with two sides is orientable and that a surface with only
one side is non-orientable. It seems that the world of surfaces isnt quite so simple after all.
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Orientability
Remember that were trying to classify surfaces, and that classification is always a two step process. First, we
need to be able to list out all of the possible surfaces that exist and second, we need to make sure that we
dont have two things in our list which are homeomorphic. Weve already mentioned that to show that two
surfaces are homeomorphic is often an easy task you simply find the homeomorphism between them. On
the other hand, to show that two surfaces are not homeomorphic is often a difficult task you need tricks.
Well see that when it comes to surfaces, there are really only two tricks that you need.
The first trick is to consider the orientability of a surface in other words, whether its one-sided or twosided. All of the simple examples of surfaces that we could think of, such as the sphere or the torus, seemed
to have two sides so we called them orientable. On the other hand, we now have the projective plane, a surface
which results from gluing the one edge of a Mobius

strip to the one edge of a disk. This surface has only one
side and surfaces like this are called non-orientable. As another example of a non-orientable surface, you could
also take two copies of the Mobius

strip and glue them together along their edges. The resulting surface is
known as the Klein bottle.
Another way to think of orientability is to consider whether or not there is a notion of clockwise and
counterclockwise. If you draw a counterclockwise arrow on an orientable surface and move it around, it will
always appear to be a counterclockwise arrow. On the other hand, consider a counterclockwise arrow on the
Mobius
strip if you take it for a walk all the way around the strip, then it will come back looking like a
clockwise arrow. From this definition of orientability, its easy to prove the following fact.
Proposition. If S1 and S2 are orientable surfaces, then the connected sum S1 # S2 is orientable. If S1 is non-orientable
and S2 is any surface, then the connected sum S1 # S2 is non-orientable.
Example.
The sphere is orientable, as is any connected sum of tori.
The projective plane is non-orientable, as is any connected sum of projective planes.
Euler Characteristic
Eulers formula states that in any polyhedron, the number of vertices, edges and faces satisfies the equation
V E + F = 2. Actually, we shouldnt treat this as a statement about polyhedra, but a statement about maps
on the sphere. We define a map to be a way to divide a surface into vertices, edges and faces, where the edges
no longer have to be straight lines, just any old curves on the surface. What Eulers formula is really telling
us is that for every single map you can draw on the sphere because all polyhedra are homeomorphic to
the sphere the number of vertices, edges and faces satisfies the equation V E + F = 2. We define the
number V E + F to be the Euler characteristic of a surface, so what Eulers formula tells us is that the Euler
characteristic of the sphere is 2.
Using the same strategy as for the sphere, we can calculate the Euler characteristic of any surface but this
begs the following question. How do we know that the Euler characteristic is an intrinsic property of the
surface and doesnt depend on the map that we draw? In other words, if I draw a map on a surface and
you draw a map on the same surface, will they always have the same value of V E + F? This question is
answered by the following result.
Proposition. Two maps on the same surface will always have the same value of V E + F.
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Proof. We proved this fact for planar graphs by deleting the number of vertices, edges and faces and showing
that V E + F remained the same after each deletion. Unfortunately, this proof wasnt very precise and you
would have difficulty repeating it for a general surface. This is because we reduced planar graphs to a single
vertex and a single face on the sphere, but there is no analogous simplest map on other surfaces.
So instead, were going to see that adding vertices, edges and faces doesnt change the value of V E + F.
For example, if we simply take an edge and break it into two by adding a vertex in the middle, then the
number of vertices has increased by one, the number of edges has increased by one, while the number of
faces is the same. So V E + F is the same. Similarly if we divide a face into two by an edge, or if we decide
to add a new edge which has one endpoint a vertex of degree one. There are various cases to check, but the
crux of the argument is that you can add vertices, edges and faces to your map without changing the value of
V E + F.
Now I simply take my map and you take your map and we know that the union of these two maps that
is, the map obtained by overlapping them on the surface can be obtained from mine by adding vertices,
edges and faces. By our previous argument, this means that V E + F for my map is the same as V E + F
for the union of our maps. And by the same reasoning, V E + F for your map is the same as V E + F for
the union of our maps. In short, our maps have the same value of V E + F.
This result means that the Euler characteristic of a surface S usually denoted by (S) is an intrinsic
number associated to S and doesnt depend on which map you decide to draw on S. For example, Eulers
formula asserts that (sphere) = 2 and you can calculate that (torus) = 0. A more difficult example is to
calculate the Euler characteristic of the projective plane its equal to (projective plane) = 1. Well see
some techniques later for computing this and essentially the Euler characteristic of any given surface.
Proposition. If S1 and S2 are two surfaces, then the Euler characteristic of their connected sum is
(S1 # S2 ) = (S1 ) + (S2 ) 2.
Proof. Suppose that we have a map on S1 which contains at least one triangular face and a map on S2 which
contains at least one triangular face. Since we are allowed to remove any hole from the surfaces in order to
create the connected sum, lets decide to remove the triangular faces. After gluing the three edges from one
hole to the three edges from the other, we can see what happened to the total number of vertices, edges and
faces. Clearly, the number of vertices decreased by three, because the three around one hole and the three
around the other hole were glued together to result in three vertices. Similarly, the number of edges decreased
by three, because the three around one hole and the three around the other hole were glued together to result
in three edges. And finally, the number of faces simply decreased by two, since we removed two triangular
faces to make the holes and never added any back in. Therefore, the value of V E + F simply decreased by
two and we have the equation (S1 # S2 ) = (S1 ) + (S2 ) 2, as desired.
This theorem allows us to calculate various Euler characteristics using the following result, which you should
try to prove.
Corollary. The Euler characteristic of the connected sum of g tori is 2 2g and the Euler characteristic of the
connected sum of n projective planes is 2 n.
117
Poincar
e
Jules Henri Poincare was a French mathematician,
theoretical physicist and philosopher who lived from
1854 to 1912. He is often described as The Last Universalist, since he excelled in every branch of mathematics known in his day. Poincare is considered one
of the founders of topology, his work on the famous
three-body problem led to the birth of chaos theory,
and he is also renowned for introducing the modern principle of relativity, although Einstein seems to
have received most of the credit.
At school, Poincare was a pretty clever student,
achieving the top marks in almost every topic he
studied. Poincare went on to study mathematics and
mining engineering at university. Although he was
soon offered a post as a lecturer in mathematics, he
never fully abandoned his mining career for mathematics. Poincare went on to become chief engineer
of the Corps de Mines, held various chairs at the Sorbonne, became president of the French Academy of
Sciences and was elected to the Academie francaise.
His normal work habit was to solve a problem

completely in his head, before committing the
completed solution to paper.
His ability to visualise what he heard proved
particularly useful when he attended lectures,
since his eyesight was so poor.
He was physically clumsy and artistically inept.
He was always in a rush and disliked going
back for changes or corrections.
His method of thinking is well summarised by the
following quotation. Accustomed to neglecting details and to looking only at mountain tops, he went
from one peak to another with surprising rapidity,
and the facts he discovered, clustering around their
center, were instantly and automatically pigeonholed
in his memory.
One of the most famous problems in mathematics

the Poincare conjecture was formulated by him.
To understand just how important this problem is in
mathematics, note that when Stephen Smale proved
the conjecture in dimensions five and up in 1961, he
was awarded a Fields Medal, the highest honour in
mathematics. When Michael Freedman proved the
conjecture in dimension four in 1982, he was awarded
a Fields Medal as well. And when Grigori Perelman
proved the conjecture in dimension three in 2002, he
was also awarded a Fields Medal.37
Poincares work habits have been compared to a bee
flying from flower to flower. He didnt care about
being rigorous and disliked logic. He believed that
logic was not a way to invent but a way to structure ideas and that logic limits ideas. A psychologist
by the name of Toulouse wrote the following about
Poincare.
He worked for short periods of time, doing
mathematical research for only four hours a day.
37 Interestingly, Perelman declined the Fields Medal and seems to no longer be working in mathematics. In fact, as of 2003, he gave up
his job at the Steklov Institute and is currently unemployed, living with his mother in Saint Petersburg.
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3.4. The Classification of Surfaces
Polygon Models
Were going to look at how to very simply draw a surface on a piece of paper, and the idea is inspired by
Pac-Man world. Recall that when you glue up the sides of Pac-Man world, you obtain a torus. Furthermore,
if you look at the seams of your gluing, they form a map on the torus and, most importantly, this map has
exactly one face. This face corresponds precisely to the rectangle that made up Pac-Man world in the first
place.
So, if you could find a map on a surface which has one face, then you could cut the surface open along the
edges of the map to give a polygon. The surface can be reconstructed from this polygon as long as you have
the right gluing instructions. When you can do this, the resulting polygon and its gluing instructions are
referred to as a polygon model for the surface. Note that a polygon model must always have an even number
of sides which are glued together in pairs, without any edges left unglued. Fortunately, every surface can be
turned into a polygon model, as the following result shows.
Theorem.
Every surface corresponds to a polygon model.
Every polygon model corresponds to a surface.
Proof.
The idea here is to use the simple sounding though difficult to prove theorem which states that every
surface can be cut up into triangles. So suppose you have a surface and that you cut it up into triangles
and lay them down on a table. We can label each side of a triangle with a gluing instruction which tells
you how the triangles can be glued back together to recreate the surface. Now just take two triangles
which are supposed to be glued together and glue them together. Find another triangle which can be
glued onto these two and just go ahead and glue it to them. If you keep gluing more triangles onto the
shape that you have, they will all end up making one piece which will form a polygon in fact, the
gluing instructions on the unglued edges of the polygon will ensure that its a polygon model for the
surface.
A polygon model is really just a polygon with 2n sides which are glued together in n pairs. You can
check that after performing such a gluing, the resulting object is indeed a surface. The main thing
to check is that around every point, there is a little disk this is certainly true for points inside the
polygon. And for points on the edges, there will be half of a disk protruding from one edge and half of
a disk protruding from the edge that its glued to these two halves of disks glue together to make a
whole disk. Finally, you need to check that if you take a point which is a vertex of the polygon model,
then its surrounded by a disk. But this is easy to check, since all of the vertices which glue together
will have a little pizza slice of a disk and these pizza slices glue together to make a whole disk.
Edge Words
Imagine that someone calls you up on the phone and asks you to describe your favourite surface how
can you do it? One way is to cut up your surface into triangles, glue the triangles together until they form a
polygon, and then describe the resulting polygon and its gluing instructions remember that this is called a
polygon model. These gluing instructions are usually given by writing the same letter on each pair of sides
which get glued together and placing arrows on the sides to show in which direction they get glued.
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So you can describe a surface by reading around its polygon model usually in a counterclockwise fashion
calling out x if the side is labelled x and the arrow is facing in the right direction and calling out x 1 if the
side is labelled x and the arrow is facing in the wrong direction. This sequence of letters, some with inverses
and some without, is called an edge word for a surface. Note that one surface can be described by many many
different edge words. Hopefully its clear that once you tell someone an edge word to your favourite surface,
then they can reconstruct the surface that youre talking about.
Example. Lets consider the Pac-Man world example from earlier, which we know to be the torus. Starting
in the bottom-left corner and reading around counterclockwise, the first letter is a, the second is b, the third is
a1 and the fourth is b1 , which takes us back to where we started. So an edge word for the torus is aba1 b1 .
a
a
Example. Some other useful edge words to keep in mind are aa, which represents the projective plane, and
aba1 b which represents the Klein bottle.
Playing with Edge Words

What wed like to do is translate some of the constructions to do with surfaces into the world of edge words.
This will allow us to play with surfaces by just playing with edge words and that is a much simpler game,
because edge words dont involve any crazy pictures, imagining things in four-dimensional space, and so on.
First, lets consider what happens to edge words when we take connected sums. We earlier discussed that
when you take connected sums, it doesnt matter in the slightest where you decide to cut out your holes from
each surface. So if we want to take the connected sum of two tori, for example, we could describe one by
aba1 b1 , the other by cdc1 d1 , and decide to cut out holes from each one as shown in the diagram below.
a
If you open each of these holes up, the rectangles look more like pentagons, where four of the edges are
labelled and the unlabelled edges in each pentagon will get glued together. The result will be an octagon
whose edge word is simply aba1 b1 cdc1 d1 .
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d
c
It is a simple matter to generalise this reasoning and the final result is the following fact.
Proposition. Given polygon models for the surfaces S1 and S2 with edge words W1 and W2 , an edge word for the
connected sum S1 # S2 is W1 W2 , where the words W1 and W2 have simply been written one after the other.
If you analyse what happens when you slide a counterclockwise arrow around a polygon model, then youll
find that nothing happens to the direction of the arrow unless you happen to slide over an edge and emerge
from the edge that it is glued to. In fact, the direction of the arrow doesnt change unless these two edges are
facing in the same direction around the polygon. In other words, we have the following fact which allows us
to deduce the orientability of a surface very simply from its edge word.
Proposition. In an edge word for an orientable surface, every letter appears with its inverse. In an edge word for a
non-orientable surface, there exists at least one letter which does not appear with its inverse.
Finally, lets consider how to calculate the Euler characteristic from an edge word, for example the edge word
abcdc1 b1 a1 d1 . Once youve seen how to calculate the Euler characteristic for this edge word, youll no
doubt be able to calculate the Euler characteristic for just about any edge word I give you.
2
1
d
b
1
121
Above we have a diagram of the polygon model corresponding to the edge word. Of course, to work out
the Euler characteristic of the corresponding surface, wed like to determine the number of vertices, edges
and faces. The easiest of these is the number of faces, since we always have F = 1 for a polygon model. The
next easiest is the number of edges, since the eight edges will get glued into four pairs, so the resulting map
on the surface will have E = 4. And finally we can calculate the number of vertices as V = 3. We do this
by determining which vertices get matched up with each other after the gluing occurs. In the diagram, the
three different vertices are labelled 1, 2 and 3. The strategy for finding this labelling is to make sure that the
two vertices at the tip of the edges labelled a correspond to the same vertex and the two vertices at the tail
of the edges labelled a correspond to the same vertex. If you do this for every edge label, then you should
find that the vertices of the polygon divide into the three groups indicated, each group corresponding to
one of the three vertices of the resulting map. Now that we have the number of vertices, edges and faces,
its a simple matter to calculate = V E + F = 3 4 + 1 = 0. Furthermore, we know that this surface is
orientable because, in the edge word abcdc1 b1 a1 d1 , every letter appears with its inverse.
The Classification of Surfaces

Finally, were in a position where we can classify the surfaces that is, write a list of every different surface
possible. A lot of effort by mathematicians goes into classifying mathematical objects. However, surfaces is
one of the few examples where weve been successful and achieved a complete classification. In fact, this was
all worked out back in the early twentieth century.
Theorem (The classification of surfaces). Every surface is homeomorphic to the sphere, a connected sum of tori or a
connected sum of projective planes. Furthermore, no two of these surfaces are homeomorphic to each other.
Sketch of the proof. The proof of this theorem, although reasonably elementary, is rather involved. Rather than
get bogged down in all the gory details, Ill just give an overview of the proof, which relies heavily on the
fact that surfaces can be described by edge words and that every edge word describes a surface.
Take any edge word our goal is to show that that it corresponds to a sphere, a connected sum of tori
or a connected sum of projective planes.
The idea is to apply simplifying moves to the edge word which do not change the surface. Such moves
can be applied until the edge word can be recognised as the sphere or a connected sum of tori and
projective planes. The only moves you require to perform this task are the following you should
check that they do not change the surface.
( aXa1 Y )
= (b1 XbY )
( XY )
= (YX )
( aa1 X )
= (X )
( aXaY ) = P # ( XY 1 )
(X )
= ( X 1 )
( aWbXa1 Yb1 Z )
= T # (WZYX )
The idea is that a sequence of such moves allows you to break an edge word into a piece which is a
projective plane or a torus connected sum with a surface whose edge word is shorter. Here, I am using
a and b to represent letters, and W, X, Y, Z to represent words. Furthermore, P and T represent the
projective plane and the torus, respectively. And finally, the word X 1 is what you get if you read the
word X backwards. For example, if X was aba1 cdc1 , then reading it backwards would give you
cd1 c1 ab1 a1 . Here, we are using the notation (W ) to denote the surface which corresponds to the
edge word W.
122
So you can use the aforementioned simplifying moves to reduce the surface to a connected sum of tori
and projective planes. However, connected sums of tori and projective planes do not actually appear in
our classification of surfaces. But thats all right, because when you have a mix of the two appearing in
a connected sum, you can replace the torus with two projective planes. Another way to say this is that
T#P
= P # P # P. The proof of this statement is something that you can try in the comfort of your own
home its simply equivalent to the statement ( aba1 b1 cc) = ( aabbcc).
These tricks can be used to reduce any edge word until it looks like it represents the sphere, a connected
sum of tori or a connected sum of projective planes. All that remains is to show that these are all
different from each other. However, this is quite easy, because we can use orientability and the Euler
characteristic to tell all of these surfaces apart. For more details, you can consult the following useful
table.
SURFACE
ORIENTABILITY
EULER CHARACTERISTIC
orientable
orientable
non-orientable
2
2 2g
2n
sphere
connected sum of g tori
connected sum of n projective planes
So we now have a very useful corollary it took a lot of work to get to this point in time, but we can now
say that we essentially understand everything there is to understand about surfaces.
Corollary. In order to identify a surface, all you need are its orientability and its Euler characteristic.
Problems
Problem. Identify the surface corresponding to the edge word abcdc1 b1 a1 d1 .
Proof. We earlier calculated that this surface has Euler characteristic equal to zero and is orientable. Now we
can consult the table above and identify the surface as a connected sum of one torus namely, a torus.
Problem. Identify the surface corresponding to the edge word abcdec1 d1 bae1 .
Proof. The following is a diagram of the polygon
model, with the vertices of the polygon labelled 1
and 2. All of the vertices labelled 1 will coincide
after the gluing is performed and all of the vertices labelled 2 will coincide after the gluing is performed. Therefore, the Euler characteristic is simply
= V E + F = 2 5 + 1 = 2.
It is easy to see from the edge word that the surface is
non-orientable, since the letter a does not appear with
its inverse. Therefore, the classification of surfaces
tells us that it must be a connected sum of projective
planes. In fact, the Euler characteristic tells us that it
must be a connected sum of four projective planes,
which we can write as P # P # P # P.
123
c
2
2
e
d
1
Noether
Amalie Emmy Noether was a German mathematician who was born into a Jewish family in 1882 and
died from surgery complications in 1935 at the age
of fifty-three. She is known for her groundbreaking
contributions to abstract algebra and to theoretical
physics, despite many obstacles in her life. For example, her decision to attend the University of Erlangen
was unconventional since the Academic Senate of the
university had declared that allowing coeducation
would overthrow all academic order. She was one
of only two female students in a university of nearly
one thousand and was only allowed to audit classes
with the permission of each individual professor.
generous with her ideas and is credited with several

lines of research published by other mathematicians,
even in fields far removed from her main work.
Noether was described by Albert Einstein and others as the most important woman in the history of
mathematics. She revolutionised abstract algebra and
discovered Noethers theorem in physics, which explains the fundamental connection between symmetry and conservation laws this tells us why we
can expect conversation of physical properties such
as energy, momentum and angular momentum. Her
theorem has been called one of the most important
mathematical theorems ever proved in guiding the
After completing her dissertation, Noether worked development of modern physics.
at the Mathematical Institute of Erlangen, but had to
do so without pay for seven years. Finally in 1915,
she was invited by the great mathematicians David
Hilbert and Felix Klein to join the mathematics de
partment at the University of Gottingen,
a worldrenowned centre of mathematical research. However,
when the Nazis came to power in 1933, Noether was
forced to leave her job due to her Jewish background.
She accepted the decision calmly and was fortunately
offered a job at Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia,
which provided a welcoming home for her during
the last two years of her life.
Noether was highly respected for her teaching. Apparently, she did not follow a lesson plan for her lectures, which frustrated some students. Instead, she
used her lectures as a spontaneous discussion time,
to think through and clarify important cutting-edge
problems in mathematics. Once, when the mathematics department was closed for a state holiday, she
gathered the class on the steps outside, led them
through the woods, and lectured at a local coffee
house. Later, after she had been dismissed by the
Third Reich, she invited students into her home to
discuss their future plans and mathematical concepts.
In addition to her own publications, Noether was
124
4.1. Tiling Rectangles
The Mutilated Chessboard

One of the most famous of tiling conundrums is the following, a problem which almost every mathematician
must have encountered at one time or another.
Consider an 8 8 chessboard, where the top-right and bottom-left squares have been removed. Is
it possible to tile this mutilated chessboard with 2 1 dominoes?
The first thing you should do is take out some pen and paper, draw a mutilated chessboard, and try to tile it
with 2 1 dominoes. However, I can tell you right now that youll fail not because your tiling skills are
inadequate, but because the task is impossible. The answer to this problem should seem surprising to an
unsuspecting audience.
Prior to removing the two squares, there is a myriad of ways to perform such a domino tiling actually,
36042 = 12988816 ways to be precise, but thats another story. So why should such a trivial alteration of the
board reduce this number to zero? The argument is stunning in its simplicity and the key to the solution lies
in the seemingly unimportant colouring of the chessboard into black and white squares. This colouring is
such that the placement of any domino on the board will cover exactly one square of each colour. So if its
possible to tile the board with dominoes, then it must be the case that there is an equal number of black and
white squares. However, a quick count reveals that the mutilated chessboard has 30 black squares and 32
white squares. A slicker way to see that there are unequal numbers of black and white squares is to notice
that we removed two squares of the same colour from a board that previously had equal numbers of each.
From this disparity, we are led to the conclusion that the mutilated chessboard cannot be tiled by dominoes,
no matter how hard one might try.
Colouring Arguments
We were lucky with the mutilated chessboard problem, because the standard 8 8 chessboard came with a
colouring which helped our cause, free of charge. But sometimes, as in the next problem, you have to invent
your own colouring.
Is it possible to tile a 10 10 square with 4 1 rectangles?
Once again, try as you might, youll find that its impossible to tile a 10 10 board with 4 1 rectangles. So it
seems like a good idea to generalise the colouring trick which worked for the mutilated chessboard so that it
works for this problem too. And if it works for this problem too, then who knows how many other problems
this colouring trick will work for?
125
The crucial aspect of the chessboard colouring that we used is the fact that any domino placed on the board
occupied one square of each colour. So the idea here is to find a colouring of the 10 10 square such that
any 4 1 rectangle placed on the board occupies one square of each colour. Of course, this means that we
require four colours, which we will call 0, 1, 2 and 3. Working along the top row of the board, we may as well
label the first four squares 0, 1, 2 and 3, in that order. In order to satisfy the property that any 4 1 rectangle
placed on the board occupies one square of each colour, the next square along must be labelled 0. And the
next square along must be labelled 1, and the next square along must be labelled 2, and the next square along
must be labelled 3, and so on. So we see that every square in the first row will be coloured according to the
repeating pattern 0, 1, 2, 3, 0, 1, 2, 3, . . .. Since this seems to work along the first row, we can use the same trick
to fill the first column. And after a little trial and error, you should find the following very pretty looking
colouring of the 10 10 square.
0
I like to call this a modulo 4 colouring, because if we label the rows and columns 0, 1, 2, . . ., then the square in
row i and column j is coloured i + j modulo 4. If you have no idea what Im talking about, then thats fine,
because the colouring is easy to describe without all of this jargon. You simply cycle through the colours 0, 1,
2, 3 along the first row, and every other row is the same as the previous one, but shifted to the left by one.
Hopefully, I dont need to tell you that for other problems, you might need to use a modulo k colouring for
some positive integer k.
This colouring certainly obeys the rule that a 4 1 rectangle on the board always occupies one square of each
colour. You can easily check this for a 4 1 rectangle placed in the first row which means that its also true
for a 4 1 rectangle placed in any other row or any column. Of course, were hoping that there are not the
same number of squares of each colour, so that we can deduce that its impossible to tile the board. One way
to verify this is to simply count them and you would indeed find that this is true there are twenty-five
squares coloured 0, twenty-six squares coloured 1, twenty-five squares coloured 2, and twenty-four squares
coloured 3. However, thats rather pedestrian, so lets use a slicker, more stylish, approach.
We simply note that its possible and quite easy to demonstrate a tiling of the entire board except for the
2 2 square in the top-left corner. This is because any 4 n rectangle is very easy to tile with 4 1 rectangles.
So you can tile the bottom four rows of the grid, leaving a 6 10 rectangle. Then you can tile the bottom four
rows of this grid, leaving a 2 10 rectangle. Now you can tile the rightmost four columns of this grid, leaving
a 2 6 rectangle. And then you can tile the rightmost four columns of this grid, leaving a 2 2 square.
126
The part of the board which weve covered in tiles must certainly contain the same number of squares of
each colour, otherwise we wouldnt have been able to tile it. Since the remaining part of the board does not
there is one square coloured 0, two squares coloured 1, one square coloured 2 and zero squares coloured 3
there cannot be the same number of squares of each colour on the entire board. We conclude that a 10 10
square cannot be tiled with 4 1 rectangles.
These colouring arguments are extremely useful and are most commonly applied with a modulo k colouring
for some positive integer k. Hopefully you can imagine what such a colouring might look like and how such
an argument might work, but if not, then well see an example very soon. One thing to keep in mind is that a
colouring argument can be used to prove that a tiling is impossible, but it can never ever be used to prove
that a tiling is possible. Anyway, to prove to someone that a particular tiling is possible is usually easy
you just have to demonstrate it to them.
Tiling Rectangles with Skinny Rectangles

Since a colouring argument was so successful for the previous problem, we may as well try to solve the
following far more general problem.
For which values of m, n and k is it possible to tile an m n rectangle with k 1 rectangles?
If someone gives you a problem like this, the very first thing you should do with it is experiment with various
values of m, n and k. One thing you should realise very quickly is that if m is a multiple of k, then the tiling
is really easy to find. And thats because the first column consists of m squares and can be tiled with mk
rectangles. Once you can tile the first column this way, then you can tile every column on the board in this
way. Similarly, the tiling is very easy to find if n is a multiple of k. But what happens if neither m nor n is
a multiple of k? Well, you should find that the task is impossible, and thats precisely what were going to
prove.
Theorem. Its possible to tile an m n rectangle with k 1 rectangles if and only if m is a multiple of k or n is a
multiple of k.38
Proof. Weve already shown that if m is a multiple of k or n is a multiple of k, then the tiling is easy to find. So
lets now assume that m and n are not multiples of k and prove that the tiling is impossible.
This is where our coloured pencils come to the rescue. Hopefully, you havent forgotten the problem we
solved earlier about tiling with 4 1 rectangles. We solved that one by using a colouring which repeats every
four squares. For this problem, we simply use a colouring which repeats every k squares. The strategy here
is the same fill out the first row by cycling through the colours 0, 1, 2, . . . , k 1 and let every other row
be the same as the previous row one, but shifted to the left by one. I just happen to be using the colours
0, 1, 2, . . . , k 1 because thats what Im used to. Youre more than welcome to use the colours 1, 2, 3, . . . , k or
even real colours whatever takes your fancy.
Now if m is not a multiple of k, then it must leave some remainder a after you divide by k. Similarly, if n is
not a multiple of k, then it must leave some remainder b after you divide by k. And these numbers a and b
cant be any old numbers they must be positive integers which lie strictly between 0 and k.
38 In mathematics, when we say A or B, we allow the possibility that both A and B could happen. Its not like when you go to a friends
house and they ask you whether you want tea or coffee, in which case they are usually excluding the fact that you might want both.
127
Well also make the assumption that a b which we certainly can do, because if it wasnt true, then we could
just switch the names of m and n and the names of a and b to make it true.39
Note that its possible and quite easy to demonstrate a tiling of the entire board except for the
a b square in the top-left corner. This is because
you can tile the bottom k rows of the grid, leaving an
(m k) n rectangle. Then you can tile the bottom
k rows of this grid, leaving an (m 2k ) n rectangle. And you can keep tiling the bottom k rows of
the grid, until you are left with an a n rectangle.
Now you can tile the rightmost k columns of this
grid, leaving an a (n k) rectangle. Then you can
tile the rightmost k columns of this grid, leaving an
a (n 2k) rectangle. And you can keep tiling the
rightmost k rows of the grid, until you are left with
an a b rectangle.
a
k
..
.
..
.
..
.
k
n
Remember that our goal is to show that there arent equal numbers of squares of each colour on the entire
board. The trick weve used here is to tile a large part of the board, which tells us that the tiled part definitely
does have equal numbers of squares of each colour. In other words, weve reduced the problem to showing
that there arent equal numbers of squares of each colour in the a b rectangle in the top-left corner.
All we have to do now is note the following two things.
Note that the colour a 1 appears in the bottom-left corner. In fact, it has to appear in every row of the
a b rectangle. This is because it also appears in the square one up and one right of the bottom-left
corner, and in the square one up and one right from that one, and in the square one up and one right
from that one, and so on. Since a b, this means that the colour a 1 appears at least once in every
row. The fact that b < k tells us that no colour can appear more than once in a row. So, in summary,
colour a 1 actually appears exactly a times, once in each row.
0
b2 b1
b1
b+1
..
.
..
.
..
.
..
.
..
.
a2 a1
a1
a+1
39 Often, mathematicians will say that we can make an assumption of this sort without loss of generality. It basically means that the
assumption is allowed, and that you are still covering all possible cases, even though it might not at first appear to be so. In fact, such
arguments are often referred to as WLOG arguments.
128
Note that the colour 0 appears in the top-left corner but it definitely does not appear in the second
row and this is because the second row looks like 1, 2, 3, . . .. So if it did appear, then the second row
would have at least k squares, clearly in contradiction of our assumption that b < k. This means that
the colour 0 definitely does not appear in the second row and yet, we already discussed the fact that no
colour can appear more than once in a row. So, in summary, the colour 0 appears fewer than a times.
This tells us that the colour 0 and the colour a 1 do not appear the same number of times on the entire board.
And this is precisely what we wanted to prove, because we can now deduce that the tiling is impossible.
Tiling Rectangles with Rectangles

Thus far, weve considered only the case of tiling with skinny rectangles in other words, those of the form
k 1. Lets now broaden our horizons and consider the more general case of tiling with a b rectangles,
where a and b are positive integers. Of course, we can start by making the simplifying assumption that a and
b have no common factors greater than 1, since other cases reduce to this after scaling the size of the tiles and
the board down. For example, if a and b were both even and we wanted to know whether an m n rectangle
can be tiled with a b rectangles, then this is the same problem as determining whether an m2 n2 rectangle
can be tiled with 2a 2b rectangles. Obviously, the question we would like to answer is the following.
For which values of m, n, a and b is it possible to tile an m n rectangle with a b rectangles?
Before we state the answer, lets consider three instructive cases.
Can you tile a 12 15 rectangle with 4 7 rectangles?
No, of course not, since the area of each tile does not divide the area of the board.
Can you tile a 17 28 rectangle with 4 7 rectangles?
The answer is again in the negative, although for a more subtle reason. It turns out that 4 7 rectangles
cannot even be used to cover the first column of a 17 28 rectangle. For if such a tiling is possible, we
must certainly be able to write the number 17 as a sum of 4s and 7s. A quick check shows that this is
not the case.
Can you tile an 18 42 rectangle with 4 7 rectangles?
It is not actually possible to carry out this task. If you could, then you could certainly tile the 18 42
rectangle with 4 1 rectangles, by tiling each 4 7 rectangle with seven 4 1 rectangles. But our
earlier result which we proved using a colouring argument tells us that you cant tile an 18 42
rectangle with 4 1 rectangles because neither 18 nor 42 are multiples of 4.
These arguments can be generalised to prove the following theorem, which gives a complete answer to our
original problem.
Theorem. Let a and b be positive integers with no common factors greater than 1. A tiling of an m n rectangle with
a b rectangles exists if and only if
both m and n can be written as a sum of as and bs; and
either m or n is a multiple of a and either m or n is a multiple of b.
Faulty Tilings
Lets now turn our attention to the following beautiful tiling problem.
129
A 6 6 square is tiled with 2 1 dominoes. Prove that its possible to cut the board into two
smaller rectangles with a straight line which doesnt pass through any of the dominoes.
Given a tiling, lets call a line which cuts the board into two pieces and yet does not pass through any of the
tiles a fault line. For example, the diagram below shows two tilings of a 5 6 rectangle with dominoes, one
which has a fault line and one which doesnt. This particular problem asserts that every possible domino
tiling of the 6 6 square must have a fault line.
In order to obtain a contradiction, lets suppose that we have a domino tiling of the 6 6 square which has no
fault line. Consider any one of the ten potential fault lines five horizontal and five vertical and, without
loss of generality, we may assume that it is vertical. Since our tiling has no fault line, at least one domino
must cross this vertical. However, it cannot be the only such domino, since otherwise, an odd number of
squares would remain to the left of the line and this part of the board cannot be tiled with dominoes. So at
least two dominoes must cross the given vertical line. The same argument applies for all ten potential fault
lines, so at least two dominoes must cross each of the ten potential fault lines. Since a domino may cross only
one such line, we conclude that the tiling must involve at least 10 2 = 20 dominoes. However, 20 dominoes
cover an area of 40 squares, more than the area of the board in question. This contradiction implies that every
tiling of the 6 6 square with dominoes must have a fault line.
Having solved this question, its only natural to ask the following more general question.
When can an m n rectangle be tiled with a b rectangles without any fault lines?
Despite first appearances, there is a natural answer to this problem as described by the following result.
Interestingly enough, the case of tiling a 6 6 rectangle with dominoes which had such an elegant proof, is
the only exception to the rule.
Theorem. Let a and b be positive integers with no common factors greater than 1. A faultless tiling of an m n
rectangle with a b rectangles exists if and only if
both m and n can be written as a sum of as and bs in such a way that at least one a and one b is used;
either m or n is a multiple of a, and either m or n is a multiple of b; and
for the case where the tiles are dominoes, the rectangle is not 6 6.
More Mutilated Chessboards

We started with the mutilated chessboard problem from such humble beginnings, we began our journey
into the amazing world of tiling. The mutilated chessboard problem spawns a further interesting question
whose answer is not quite so well-known.
130
Which pairs of squares may be removed from the regular 8 8 chessboard so that the remaining
board can be tiled with dominoes?
Of course, the colouring argument we used to solve the mutilated chessboard problem implies that any such
pair of squares must be of opposing colours. But if we remove two such squares, is it always possible to tile
the remaining board with dominoes? The answer is in the affirmative and the simplest proof requires us to
consider the chessboard as a labyrinth, as pictured below. This labyrinth is hardly the design that might be
used for a hedge maze, since it not only has no entrance and exit, but also consists simply of a tour which
traverses all of the 64 squares. All thats required now is to note that the removal of two squares of opposite
colours divides the path now into two shorter paths, one of which may be empty. Furthermore, these two
paths are of even length, so its easy to tile them both.
Trominoes, Tetrominoes and Polyominoes

Well end with some interesting questions which can be solved with the help of colouring arguments and
other tiling tricks. But first, we have to introduce trominoes, shapes which can be made by gluing together
three unit squares edge to edge. You should be able to see that there are essentially two distinct trominoes
one looks like a 3 1 rectangle while the other looks like an L-shape. We already know which rectangles can
be tiled by 3 1 rectangles, so its natural to ask which rectangles can be tiled by L-trominoes.
And once youve mastered trominoes, of course, you would move on to tetrominoes shapes which can be
made by gluing together four unit squares edge to edge. Anyone whos played the excellent computer game
Tetris before will be well-acquainted with them, but even if you havent, you should be able to see that there
are essentially the five different types as shown in the diagram below. With these simple shapes, you have a
myriad of tiling problems that you can try, such as the following.
Can the five tetrominoes tile a rectangle of area 20?
Can two copies of each of the five tetrominoes tile a rectangle of area 40?
For each tetromino, determine which rectangles can be tiled by them.
131
And, of course, once youve mastered tetrominoes, there are many other shapes you can play with. In general,
any shape which can be made by gluing together unit squares edge to edge is called a polyomino. For any
polyomino, you can try to determine which rectangles can be tiled by them.
Problems
Problem. The 8 8 chessboard can be tiled with twenty-one 3 1 rectangles and one 1 1 square. Determine all
possible locations for the 1 1 square and prove that these are the only ones possible.
Proof. Our approach will, of course, use a modulo 3 colouring like the one pictured in the diagram below.
Recall that the great thing about this colouring is the fact that any 3 1 rectangle placed on the board will
cover precisely one square of each colour. This means that twenty-one 3 1 rectangles must cover exactly
twenty-one squares of colour 0, twenty-one squares of colour 1 and twenty-one squares of colour 2. But you
can plainly see from the diagram that there are actually twenty-one squares of colour 0, twenty-two squares
of colour 1 and twenty-one squares of colour 2. What this means is that the 1 1 square must definitely be
on a square which has the colour 1. Unfortunately, its not true that if you put the 1 1 square on a square
which has the colour 1 that you can actually tile the remainder of the board with twenty-one 3 1 rectangles.
0
The trick here is to observe that there are actually two different modulo 3 colourings that we could have tried.
In the previous colouring, each row is equal to the previous row, but shifted by one square to the left. Now
132
we simply use a colouring where each row is equal to the previous row, but shifted by one square to the
right. Again, the great thing about this colouring is the fact that any 3 1 rectangle placed on the board will
cover precisely one square of each colour. This means that twenty-one 3 1 rectangles must cover exactly
twenty-one squares of colour 0, twenty-one squares of colour 1 and twenty-one squares of colour 2. But you
can plainly see from the diagram that there are actually twenty-two squares of colour 0, twenty-one squares
of colour 1 and twenty-one squares of colour 2. What this means is that the 1 1 square must definitely be
on a square which has the colour 0.
0
So what weve deduced is that the 1 1 square must be on a square with the colour 1 in the first colouring
and on a square with the colour 0 in the second colouring. And there are only four such squares on the 8 8
chessboard the ones indicated in the diagram below.
Ill leave it as an exercise for you to show that, whichever one of these squares you decide to put the 1 1
square on, you can tile the remainder of the chessboard with 3 1 rectangles.
133
Erd
os
Paul Erdos was a Hungarian mathematician famous
for being incredibly prolific but also incredibly eccentric. He has published more mathematics papers than
anyone else in history, even more so than Euler, although Euler published more pages. He wrote nearly
1500 articles in his lifetime, in collaboration with over
500 different people. This is due to Erdos philosophy
that mathematics is a social activity.
to as epsilons, women were bosses, men were

slaves, people who stopped doing math had died,
people who physically died had left, alcoholic
drinks were poison, music was noise, people
who had married were captured, people who had
divorced were liberated, to give a mathematical
lecture was to preach, and to give an oral exam to
a student was to torture. For his epitaph he sugErdos was born in 1913 to Jewish parents who were gested, Ive finally stopped getting dumber.
both mathematics teachers. He learnt much from He contributed to many areas of mathematics most
them as a child and supposedly, at the age of three, notably combinatorics, graph theory, number theory,
could calculate how many seconds his friends had analysis, approximation theory, set theory, and probalived for. After receiving a doctorate in mathematics bility theory. As a teenager, Erdos managed to give a
at the age of twenty-one, he moved first to England very nice proof of Bertrands postulate, which states
and then to the United States, to escape the growing that there is always a prime number between n and
anti-Semitic sentiment in Europe. At this time, he 2n. He discovered the first elementary proof of the
began to develop the habit of travelling from campus prime number theorem, which states that the number
to campus and staying with friends. He would typ- of primes less than n is approximately logn n . Erdos
ically show up at a colleagues doorstep, announce also proved new results in several fields which were
that my brain is open, and stay long enough to col- of little interest to him, such as topology.
laborate on a few papers before moving on a few days
later. Possessions meant very little to Erdos and most
of his belongings would fit in a suitcase. Awards and
other earnings were generally donated to people in
need and various worthy causes. He kept up this
vagabond lifestyle until his death in 1996.
His colleague Alfred Renyi once said that a mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems. Erdos certainly drank copious amounts of coffee but later in life also started to take amphetamines.
At one stage, a friend and colleague bet him $500 that
he couldnt stop taking the drug for a month. Erdos
won the bet, but complained during his abstinence
that mathematics had been set back by a month: Before, when I looked at a piece of blank paper my mind
was filled with ideas. Now all I see is a blank piece
of paper. Needless to say, after he won the bet, he
promptly resumed his amphetamine habit.
Erdos had his own idiosyncratic vocabulary he
spoke of The Book, an imaginary book in which
God had written down the most elegant proofs for
every mathematical theorem. Children were referred
134
Erdos is perhaps most well-known for his application

of the probabilistic method to extremal combinatorics,
particularly Ramsey theory. Ramsey theory is the
branch of mathematics concerned with problems of
the following type.
power and technology to try and find the value. On

the other hand, if they ask for R(6) instead, then we
should simply gather together all of our humanpower
and technology to try and launch a preemptive attack
on the aliens.
How many people do you need at a party

to guarantee that there exist at least n people who all know each other or n people
who all dont know each other?
Erdos friends created a humorous tribute for him,

defining the Erdos number of a mathematician. Erdos
himself is the only mathematician with Erdos number
zero. Anyone who has written a paper with him has
Erdos number one, anyone who has written a paper
with someone who has written a paper with him has
Erdos number two, and so on. Some have estimated
that ninety percent of the worlds active mathematicians have an Erdos number smaller than eight. At
least twice, there have been eBay auctions offering
the chance to collaborate on a paper with someone in
order to gain a small Erdos number. I have an Erdos
number of two and, unfortunately, it will never ever
decrease.
Weve already seen that the answer in the case n = 3

is six, and we write this as R(3) = 6. It turns out that
R(4) = 18 and that the value of R(5) is known only
to be between 43 and 49 inclusive. These so-called
Ramsey numbers are incredibly difficult compute, as
evidenced by the following story that Erdos used to
tell. Imagine that a large alien force, vastly more powerful than us, lands on Earth and asks for the value of
R(5) within a year or they will destroy our planet. In
that case, we should gather together all of our human-
135
4.2. Scissors Congruence
What is Area?
Despite being such a fundamental notion of geometry, the concept of area is very difficult to define. As
human beings, we have an intuitive grasp of the idea which suffices for our everyday lives. However, as
mathematicians, weve only relatively recently been able to identify what we actually mean by the word.
Efforts to define and generalise the notions of length, area and volume have led to the development of the
branch of mathematics known today as measure theory.
Part of the difficulty in defining area lies in the fact that subsets of the plane can be quite wild in comparison
to the objects we encounter in the physical world. In particular, there exist certain sets for which we cannot
ascribe an area without disturbing one or more of the fundamental premises that govern measure theory.
These so-called non-measurable sets make any efforts to characterise area rather complicated. To avoid such
intricacies, lets propose the more modest task of defining area for polygons in the plane.
A seemingly elementary approach to the problem is to use the method taught to children in school. This
involves drawing the shape on graph paper and then counting the number of squares which lie within the
figure. This, of course, gives a lower bound for the area, while counting the squares which contain some part
of the shape in question will yield an upper bound. The idea now is to consider graph paper with smaller
and smaller squares, thus giving more and more accurate lower and upper bounds on the area in the hope
that they will converge to the same number. Its this number which is defined to be the area. It turns out that
this definition of area, although unsatisfactory for more complicated subsets of the plane, is well-defined for
every polygon in the plane. In this way, we have constructed the area function which, given a polygon P,
returns a real number a( P).
Its quite unfortunate that this definition of area, even for polygons, should involve infinite processes and
continuity arguments. Could we perhaps find an alternative definition, one which requires purely elementary
techniques? A common trend in contemporary mathematics is to define an object by the properties which it
satisfies. For example, we may like to extract enough properties of the area function defined above that there
can be only one such function which satisfies them all. In fact, the four properties listed below perform such
a task and we present them as the area axioms.
Non-negative. If P is a polygon, then a( P) 0.
Additive. If P1 and P2 are polygons with no interior points in common, then a( P1 P2 ) = a( P1 ) + a( P2 ).
Invariant. If P is a polygon and f is an isometry, then a( P) = a( f ( P)).
Normalised. If S is the square with sides of length one, then a(S) = 1.
I think youd have to agree that any notion of area must satisfy these four axioms. A careful look at them
leads us naturally to the following definition. We say that two polygons are scissors congruent if one can be
cut into finitely many polygons which can be rearranged to give the other. In other words, scissors congruent
polygons are common solutions to a jigsaw puzzle with the same set of pieces. Lets denote the fact that
polygons P and Q are scissors congruent by P Q. Also, note that we can extend the definition to unions of
polygons with no interior points in common. In this case, we denote the union by P1 + P2 + + Pn , where
P1 , P2 , . . . , Pn denote the individual polygons. The notion of scissors congruence, first for polygons, and then
for polyhedra, will be our main topic of investigation.
136
Scissors Congruence in the Plane

Our exploration into the areas of polygons has naturally led us to the notion of scissors congruence. Its
a simple consequence of the area axioms that if two polygons are scissors congruent, then they have the
same area. Now its only natural to ask the converse if two polygons have the same area, then are they
necessarily scissors congruent?
This question was answered in the affirmative by Bolyai in 1832 and independently by Gerwien one year later.
Before embarking on the proof, lets begin by presenting a few important lemmas on scissors congruence.
Lemma. Scissors congruence is an equivalence relation, which means that
for all polygons P, P P;
if P Q, then Q P; and
if P Q and Q R, then P R.
Proof. The first two statements are immediately evident from the definition of scissors congruence. For the
third statement, suppose that we trace out the cuts required to decompose Q into pieces which rearrange to
give P as well as the cuts required to decompose Q into pieces which rearrange to give R. Then cutting along
all of these lines will yield a finite set of pieces which can be rearranged to produce either P or R. It follows
that P and R are scissors congruent.
Lemma. Every triangle is scissors congruent with some
rectangle.
Proof. Cut along the altitude to the longest side of the
triangle as well as along the perpendicular bisector
of this altitude. This will decompose the triangle into
two triangles and two quadrilaterals which can be
rearranged to give a rectangle with the same base and
half the height of the triangle.
Lemma. Any two rectangles with the same area are scissors congruent.
Proof. Place the two rectangles in the plane so that they have one vertex in common, with two adjacent sides
aligned as shown in the diagram. Cutting one of the rectangles along the lines shown produces a pentagon, a
quadrilateral, a large triangle and a small triangle which can be rearranged to give the other rectangle.
The astute reader may have noticed that this particular decomposition may not always work if one of the
rectangles is too long. More explicitly, suppose that
the rectangles have dimensions `1 h1 and `2 h2
where we may assume without loss of generality that
h1 < h2 `2 < `1 . Then the construction works only
when `1 2`2 . However, this can be arranged by
repeatedly cutting the longer rectangle in half and
stacking the two pieces on top of each other until the
condition `1 2`2 is satisfied.
137
With these three lemmas under our metaphorical belts, were now ready to prove the BolyaiGerwien
Theorem.
Theorem. Two polygons are scissors congruent if and only if they have the same area.
Proof. First, note that any polygon P can be cut into finitely many triangles. Furthermore, each of these
triangles is scissors congruent to some rectangle and each of these rectangles is scissors congruent to a
rectangle, one of whose sides has length one. Therefore, we can write
P R1 + R2 + + R n ,
where each Ri is a rectangle with one side of length one.
Concatenating these rectangles together produces a single rectangle R which has one side of length one. Of
necessity, the other side of R must have length equal to the area of P. Therefore, if P and Q have the same
area, they are both scissors congruent to the rectangle R, so they are scissors congruent to each other.
Philosophically, the BolyaiGerwien Theorem tells us that its possible to see whether two polygons have the
same area or not using a finite process of cutting and pasting. This is mathematically more elementary
and hence, more satisfactory than the usual definition of area which requires an infinite process involving
graph paper with smaller and smaller squares.
What is Volume?
Its simple enough to develop a theory of volume for polyhedra in an analogous manner to the theory of
area for polygons. The area axioms transform naturally into volume axioms to give a rigorous definition
of the volume of a polyhedron. However, it had been noted by Gauss that proofs for the volume of a
tetrahedron had all used in some way or another infinite processes and continuity arguments, rather than
entirely elementary methods. Such an elementary proof would require that polyhedra with the same volume
be scissors congruent if two polyhedra have the same volume, then are they necessarily scissors congruent?
Hilbert considered this question of such importance that he included it in his famous address to the International Congress of Mathematicians at Paris in 1900. As is well known, his address included a list
of twenty-three unsolved problems in mathematics which he considered to be of great significance. This
question of scissors congruence in three dimensions was the third on his list.
Its clear from Hilberts exposition on the matter that he didnt expect the BolyaiGerwien theorem to carry
over from polygons in the plane to polyhedra in space and he was exactly right. Hilberts third problem
was answered by his own student Max Dehn in 1900, the very year in which Hilbert had announced his list
of problems. The crux of the proof lies in constructing ingenious invariants which have since been named
after Dehn. Using these, Dehn managed to prove that the cube and the regular tetrahedron of unit volume
are not scissors congruent. Philosophically, Dehns result tells us that its impossible to see whether two
polyhedra have the same volume or not using a finite process of cutting and pasting.
Cantor and Cardinality

Naively, it might seem that counting and measuring are two of the simplest and most fundamental concepts
in mathematics. On the other hand, if you examine them closely, youll find that exploring these two areas
138
can throw up a lot of seemingly nonsensical but mathematically true statements.

When you count the number of fingers of your left hand, youre just finding a bijection that is, a one-to-one
correspondence from the fingers to the set {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}. If you wanted to convince someone that you had
the same number of fingers on each hand, then you could simply count the number of fingers on your left
hand and your right hand and find that the two answers are the same. Of course, this means that you would
essentially be finding a bijection from the fingers of your left hand to the set {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} and a bijection from
the fingers of your right hand to the same set. Obviously, a far more economical way to perform the same
task is to simply line the fingers from your hands together, so that every finger from one hand matches up
with a unique finger from the other. In other words, you can convince someone that you have the same
number of fingers on each hand by finding a bijection between the two sets. Therefore, we say that two sets
have the same cardinality in other words, the same size if there exists a bijection from one to the other. It
turns out that not only is this a sensible definition, but its essentially the only sensible one possible.
This definition for cardinality was first proposed by Georg Cantor in the nineteenth century and used to
demonstrate a number of pretty counter-intuitive facts.
The set of positive even integers has the same size as the set of positive integers.
The set of integers has the same size as the set of positive integers.
The set of rational numbers has the same size as the set of positive integers.
The set of numbers in the interval [0, 1] has size greater than the set of positive integers. There is a
famous and beautiful proof of this fact which uses a trick known as Cantors diagonal argument.
The set of numbers in the interval [0, 1] has the same size as the set of points in a square with sides of
length one.
More Nonsense
Peano curves.
Cantors work shows that the set of numbers in the interval [0, 1] has the same size as the set of points
in a square with sides of length one. However, the usual bijection used to prove this fact is a rather
crazy function with no nice properties. In the late nineteenth century, Giuseppe Peano managed to
find a function from the interval [0, 1] to the set of points in a square with sides of length one which is
surjective in other words, contained every point of the square in its range and also continuous.
This is an amazing fact, because it means that its possible to draw a curve which passes through every
point in the square at least once. One of the easiest ways to describe such a curve is as the limit of the
following sequence of diagrams.
139
Continuum hypothesis.
Cantor managed to find many infinite sets which have the same size as the set of positive integers. We
say that these sets have cardinality 0 , which is pronounced aleph-nought. He also managed to find
many infinite sets which have the same size as the set of numbers in the interval [0, 1]. We say that these
sets have cardinality c, which stands for continuum. In fact, Cantor found an infinity of infinities by
showing that for any set with cardinality x, there is a set with cardinality greater than x. On the other
hand, his search didnt turn up any sets whose cardinality was between 0 and c, which led Cantor to
conjecture that none existed. This conjecture is now known as the continuum hypothesis.
Rather amazingly, due to work by Kurt Godel

in 1940 and Paul Cohen in 1963, we now know that
the continuum hypothesis can neither be proved nor disproved using the usual axioms known as
ZermeloFraenkel set theory which form the foundation of modern mathematics. In other words, we
may be able to add the continuum hypothesis or its opposite to our axioms and obtain a consistent
system of mathematics. For this piece of work, Cohen was awarded the Fields Medal, often viewed as
the top honour a mathematician can receive.
BanachTarski paradox.
In 1924, Stefan Banach and Alfred Tarski showed that its possible to split a solid sphere into a finite
number of non-overlapping pieces which can then be put back together in a different way to yield two
identical copies of the original sphere. The reassembly process involves only moving the pieces around
using isometries. However, the pieces themselves are complicated they are not usual solid figures
but look more like infinite scatterings of points.
The BanachTarski theorem is often referred to as a paradox because it contradicts basic geometric
intuition. Doubling the sphere by dividing it into parts and moving them around by isometries
without any stretching, bending, or adding new points seems to be impossible, since all these
operations preserve volume. This paradoxical decomposition shows that the notion of volume certainly
cant apply to arbitrary sets of points in space.
140
Hilbert
David Hilbert was a German mathematician who
lived from 1862 to 1943 and is recognised as one of
the most influential and universal mathematicians of
his day. He discovered and developed a broad range
of fundamental ideas in mathematics and established
rigour in much of the mathematics used in modern
physics. Hilbert famuosly presented a list of twentythree unsolved problems at the 1900 International
Congress of Mathematicians in Paris. This is generally considered to be the most successful and deeply
considered compilation of open problems ever to be
produced by an individual mathematician.
could follow mechanically from a finite set of axioms

and that one could prove that this system contained
no contradictions. Unfortunately, this program was
doomed to fail because Kurt Godel

remarkably managed to prove that Hilberts dream was impossible.
Hilbert managed to put geometry on far more rigorous foundations than Euclid did. He proposed a
much larger set of axioms which avoided the weaknesses which had been identified in the work of Euclid. His approach signalled the shift to the modern axiomatic method which is now considered fundamental to mathematics. The main idea is that although geometry may treat things which we have
powerful intuitions about, its not necessary to assign any explicit meaning to the undefined concepts.
For example, points, lines, planes and other concepts
could be substituted, as Hilbert says, by tables, chairs,
glasses of beer and other such objects.
In 1920, Hilbert proposed a grand research project to
reformulate all of mathematics on a complete logical
foundation. Hilbert dreamed that all of mathematics
141
5. FURTHER READING
Euclidean Geometry
The Elements by Euclid
This is one of the most published and most influential works in the history of humankind. In our very
first lecture, we looked at a small part of Book I from Euclids Elements, with the main goal being to
understand the philosophy behind Euclids work. In my opinion, The Elements is an incredibly boring
read, and there are many better ways to learn mathematics. Still, you might like to look at a copy to get
a bit more of a feel for what Euclid was doing. There are many decent translations around, but I like to
use the bilingual edition by Richard Fitzpatrick which is available for free on the internet.
http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/euclid.html
Encyclopedia of Triangle Centers
This website catalogues over 3500 points associated to a triangle. Of course, the circumcentre, orthocentre, incentre and centroid are the most important, but some of these others are quite meritorious as well.
The website doesnt make for a particularly interesting read, but should definitely convince you that
theres more than meets the eye when it comes to triangles.
http://faculty.evansville.edu/ck6/encyclopedia/ETC.html
The Geometers Sketchpad
This is a program for drawing Euclidean geometry diagrams. I havent used it very much, but from
what Ive seen, it does a fine job. You can find some information about it at the first link below and the
program itself at the second link below.
http://www.keypress.com/x5521.xml
http://www.themathlab.com/toolbox/geometrystuff/geosketch.htm
GeoGebra
This is another program for drawing Euclidean geometry diagrams which I quite like. Unlike The
Geometers Sketchpad, the full program is available for free from the following website. Programs like
this may be particularly useful for those who want to teach mathematics.
http://www.geogebra.org
Geometry Revisited by H. S. M. Coxeter and Samuel L. Greitzer
This is supposedly a classic book which touches many different topics in Euclidean geometry. People
who love Euclidean geometry seem to love this book, although Im not a particular fan.
Episodes in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Euclidean Geometry by Ross Honsberger
Euclidean geometry is, in some sense, a lost art. There are very few people who seem to care about it
these days, although the few who do seem to keep on coming up with new gems. This book collects
together many of these, accompanied with beautiful proofs.
Symmetry in Geometry
Groups and Symmetry by M. A. Armstrong
It was such a long time ago when I learnt group theory that I dont remember whether I learnt it from a
book or not. Anyway, this is a nice, relatively simple, introduction to group theory that you might like
to look at. Itll show you a lot more about group theory than we covered in the course. Its part of the
Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics series which generally has books which are easy to digest.
142
5. FURTHER READING
Group Theory in the Bedroom, and Other Mathematical Diversions by Brian Hayes
A nice little taste of group theory can be found in a very easy-to-read article Group Theory in the Bedroom
which appears in American Scientist. The article can be found at the following website.
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/group-theory-in-the-bedroom
However, it also appears in this collection of articles, all by the same author. I havent had a chance to
look at the book, but Im hoping that its pretty good.
Polyhedra, Graphs and Surfaces

Graphs and Their Uses by Oystein Ore
For things which are as simple as dots and lines, graphs can be very complicated things to study. There
is a wealth of literature on graph theory, but one of the simplest books to read is this one. I havent
looked at it in a while, but I remember it being quite a good read, despite being a bit old-fashioned in
style.
Introduction to Graph Theory by Robin J. Wilson
Although an introduction to graph theory, this book is more technical than Graphs and Their Uses. I
quite like it though, and think that its a good book to learn graph theory from.
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by A. Square (otherwise known as Edwin A. Abbott)
Looking for a book which offers pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture while
exploring the concept of living in a two-dimensional world? Well, this is the book for you! This is a
brief, though very entertaining, novella and, in my opinion, one of the best books that you can buy for
$2.75.
The Shape of Space by Jeffrey R. Weeks
This book deals with some very interesting, crazy, modern geometry. It talks about surfaces, which you
should already know about, but also about higher-dimensional versions of surfaces. There are many
pretty pictures and the book should help you to visualise geometry much better. I highly recommend
this for anyone who is interested in continuing with pure mathematics or theoretical physics.
Tiling and Dissection

Tilings and Patterns by Branko Grunbaum and G.C. Shephard
At a whopping 720 pages, this is a rather lengthy tome dedicated almost completely to tiling problems.
You might like to pick it up and have a browse through it. But I really just wanted to point it out to
convince you that there is a lot to say about tiling, a lot more than weve learnt about.
Polyominoes: Puzzles, Patterns, Problems, and Packings by Solomon W. Golomb and Warren Lushbaugh
Dominoes, trominoes, tetrominoes these are all just simple examples of what are generally called
polyominoes. This book talks all about them and shouldnt be too difficult to read.
Polyominoes: A Guide to Puzzles and Problems in Tiling by George Martin
Heres another book which deals solely with polyominoes. Ive only browsed this book briefly and it
seems to contain some interesting information.
143
5. FURTHER READING
Mathematicians
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth by Paul
Hoffman
In this book, youll learn about the life, the mathematics and the eccentricities of Paul Erdos. Actually, the
book is very light on mathematics, but it does give you some idea of what the world of mathematicians
is like. Erdos is a pretty crazy character, so anything you read about him is likely to be entertaining.
N is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdos by George Paul Csicsery
This one hour documentary was made not too long before Erdos passed away. Its pretty entertaining
to watch, if you can get your hands on it.
The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan by Robert Kanigel
Ramanujan was one of the most remarkable mathematicians who ever lived. In his brief thirty-two
years on earth, he left us with thousands of results, mostly without proof. People are still working
today on deciphering his work and trying to understand how he could possibly have come up with it.
This book tells the story of his life and his mathematics.
Surely Youre Joking, Mr. Feynman by Richard P. Feynman
I think that everyone should have this book. Its essentially a very readable collection of anecdotes
about the physicist and Nobel laureate Richard Feynman. Mathematicians and scientists should be
driven by curiosity and reading this book, youll see what a crazily curious character Feynman is.
The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
If you want to know more about mathematicians and the history of mathematics, then this is the
website for you. If you head into the Biographies Index part of the website, then youll see a long list of
mathematicians in alaphebtical order, each of which is accompanied by a short biography.
http://www.gap-system.org/~history
Men of Mathematics by E. T. Bell
This book is terribly outdated, as you can tell from the rather sexist title. However, it is a classic book to
read about the lives of great mathematicians. Many spurious stories about mathematicians have been
propagated by this book, but we can forgive the author for wanting to add a few embellishments.
Mathematics Genealogy Project
This website is dedicated to keeping a register of peoples mathematical ancestry. Here, I mean that a
mathematician is the parent of another if they were their graduate advisor. You can do things like trace
my lineage all the way back to such mathematical greats as Gauss and Euler.
http://www.genealogy.ams.org
Other Stuff
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter
This is a fantastic book, dealing with mathematics, music, art, computer science, cognitive science,
language, symmetry and so on. The books chapters alternate between non-fictional prose and fictional
dialogues which are used to demonstrate various ideas. For an example, read the Crab Canon, which
can be found at the following website.
http://www.evl.uic.edu/swami/crabcanon
144
5. FURTHER READING
QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter by Richard P. Feynman

If you think you are interested in physics at all even if youve studied it and found it incredibly
boring then you should read this book. Feynman was one of the greatest and most entertaining
scientists of the twentieth century. This book is based on four lectures delivered to the public and
captures what physics is about more than any other book Ive read. Its amazing how much physics
Feynman can explain to a layperson in such a short book. If you actually want to see the lectures
themselves, then you can find them online at the following website.
http://vega.org.uk/video/subseries/8
LATEX
This is the mathematical typesetting software which has become standard in the mathematical world
and is spreading to other areas of science and engineering. If youve ever wondered how Ive made
my notes so pretty, or why Microsoft Word is so annoying for mathematics, then you should definitely
check this out. If you want to continue in mathematics or physics, then you will definitely need it and
if you enter into mathematics education, then I would definitely encourage you to use it. LATEXwas
created by Donald Knuth, one of the most famous computer scientists alive today. Two of the hardest
things about learning to use LATEXare installing it on your computer and getting started. Theres a heap
of information on the internet which will help you with both, but if in doubt, Im more than happy to
help you.
The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences
Say you come across a sequence of integers and want to know some more information about it. Then
the first thing you should do is go to this website and type it into the search engine.
http://www.research.att.com/~njas/sequences/
Or say you want to know how many graphs there are with 11 vertices? Just go to this website and itll
tell you the answer.
The Colossal Book of Mathematics: Classic Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Problems by Martin Gardner
From 1956 to 1981, Martin Gardner wrote a column entitled Mathematical Games in Scientific American.
His efforts played a great part in renewing and sustaining interest in recreational mathematics, whatever
that might mean. This book is a collection of some of his columns and you should find it pretty
interesting.
Mathellaneous (The Gazette of the Australian Mathematical Society) by Norman Do
I have a collection of my own articles, slightly less recreational in nature than those of Martin Gardner,
which you might like to peruse. These were all published as part of the Mathellaneous column which
featured in The Gazette of the Australian Mathematical Society.
http://www.math.mcgill.ca/ndo/articles.html
145
6. ASSIGNMENTS, TESTS AND EXAMINATIONS
Release date:
Due date:
Assignment 1
1:30pm on Tuesday 4 May, 2010

11:00am on Tuesday 11 May, 2010
You are not discouraged from talking about assignment problems with other students, but every solution
that you hand in must be your own work. Every page submitted should clearly indicate your name, student
number, the course number, and the assignment number. Late assignments will not be accepted, unless
under particularly extreme circumstances.
Problems
1. Let ABC be a triangle with circumcentre O and incentre I. If O and I are the same point, prove that the
triangle must be equilateral.
[1 mark]
2. Let ABC be a triangle with circumcentre O and orthocentre H. Prove that ABH = CBO.
[2 marks]
3. Let ABC be an acute triangle with altitudes AD, BE, CF.

(a) Prove that triangle AEF is similar to triangle ABC.
(b) Extend AD until it meets the circumcircle of triangle ABC at X and extend BE until it meets the
circumcircle of triangle ABC at Y. Prove that CX = CY.
[2 marks]
4. In the lectures, we tried to prove the following fact. If AB is a chord of a circle with centre O and C
is a point on the circle on the same side of AB as O, then AOB = 2 ACB. Unfortunately, our proof
was incomplete because we only considered the case when O lies inside triangle ABC. Prove that the
statement remains true in the case that O lies on one of the sides of triangle ABC and in the case that O
lies outside triangle ABC.
[3 marks]
5. Extend the median AX of triangle ABC until it meets the circumcircle of triangle ABC at K. There is a
unique circle which passes through A and B and is tangent to the line BC. If this circle meets AK at L,
prove that triangle LBX and triangle KCX are congruent to each other. Hence, deduce that BKCL is a
parallelogram.
[3 marks]
A
K
146
Assignment 1
6. Suppose that the circles C1 and C2 intersect at two points A and B and that C2 passes through the centre
of C1 , which we denote by O. Let X be a point on the arc AB which contains O and extend AX until it
intersects C1 at Y. Prove that XY = XB.
[3 marks]
X
Y
C2
C1
7.
(a) In the lectures, we proved that the diameter of a circle subtends an angle of 90 . Prove the converse
of this statement in other words, prove that if ABC is a triangle with ACB = 90 , then the
circle with diameter AB passes through C.
(b) Let ABCD be a cyclic quadrilateral such that the diagonals AC and BD are perpendicular and
intersect at the point P. Let M be the midpoint of AB and let N be the point on CD such that PN
is perpendicular to CD. Prove that the points M, P, N lie on a line.
[4 marks]
8. In the hyperbolic plane, there exist pentagons all of whose angles are equal to 90 . Sketch one example
of such a pentagon in the hyperbolic plane using the Poincare disk model. What is the area of this
pentagon?
[2 marks]
9. Let D, E, F be points on sides AB, BC, CA of triangle ABC, respectively. If DE = BE and FE = CE,
prove that the circumcentre of triangle ADF lies on the angle bisector of DEF.
[BONUS]
Hints
1. Draw in the line segments AI, BI, CI or equivalently, AO, BO, CO. What is special about the lengths in the diagram? What is
special about the angles in the diagram?
2. We already know how to work out all the angles in the diagram with triangle ABC and circumcentre O. We also already know
how to work out all the angles in the diagram with triangle ABC and orthocentre H.
3.
(a) Altitudes lead to right angles and right angles often lead to cyclic quadrilaterals. You should be able to use a cyclic
quadrilateral or two to obtain some useful relations between angles.
(b) Equal chords in a circle subtend equal angles but remember that equal angles are also subtended by equal chords.
4. Try to mimic the case that we covered in lectures as much as possible.

5. Since the problem involves a tangent, you should try to use the alternate segment theorem. Use this to prove that LBX = KCX.
6. How would you prove that triangle XYB is isosceles?
7.
(a) Suppose that C lies outside the circle with diameter AB can you find a contradiction?
(b) You should use the result from part (a), even if you are unable to prove it.
8. Do you remember how we found the sum of the angles in a polygon with n sides?
9. Do you really expect hints for a bonus question?
147
Assignment 1 Solutions
1. Let ABC be a triangle with circumcentre O and incentre I. If O and I are the same point, prove that the
triangle must be equilateral.
[1 mark]
Proof. Let the angles of triangle ABC be 2a, 2b, 2c and recall that I lies on the angle bisectors. This
means that BAI = CAI = a, CBI = ABI = b, and ACI = BCI = c.
A
A
a a
I
b
C
c
c
If O and I are the same point, then AI = BI = CI and this means that triangle ABI is isosceles. Hence,
BAI = ABI from which it follows that a = b. We can use the same argument to prove that b = c, so
all angles of triangle ABC are equal. Therefore, triangle ABC is equilateral.
2. Let ABC be a triangle with circumcentre O and orthocentre H. Prove that ABH = CBO.
[2 marks]
Proof. This problem is easy, because we already know that its possible to label every angle in the
diagram involving triangle ABC and the circumcentre using only CAB = a, ABC = b and BCA =
c. We also know that its possible to label every angle in the diagram involving triangle ABC and the
orthocentre using the same angles
A
E
O
B
H
C
First, note that BC is a chord of the circumcircle of triangle ABC. This means that the angle that
it subtends at O is twice the angle that it subtends at A. In other words, BOC = 2 BAC = 2a.
Now we use the fact that triangle OBC is isosceles with CBO = BCO. If we sum up the angles
in triangle OBC, we obtain CBO + BCO + BOC = 2CBO + 2a = 180 and this implies that
CBO = 90 a.
Next, note that if BE is an altitude of triangle ABC, then triangle ABE must be right-angled. Therefore,
ABH = ABE = 180 BAE AEB = 180 a 90 = 90 a. In conclusion, we have
ABH = CBO = 90 a.
148
3. Let ABC be an acute triangle with altitudes AD, BE, CF.

(a) Prove that triangle AEF is similar to triangle ABC.
(b) Extend AD until it meets the circumcircle of triangle ABC at X and extend BE until it meets the
circumcircle of triangle ABC at Y. Prove that CX = CY.
[2 marks]
Proof. As we often do, let the angles of triangle ABC be CAB = a, ABC = b and BCA = c.
(a) The first thing to observe is that the quadrilateral AEHF is cyclic since AEH + HFA = 180 .
In particular, the hockey theorem tells us that AEF = AHF. Since triangle AFH is rightangled, we know that AHF + FAH = 90 . And since triangle ADB is right-angled, we know
that ABD + DAB = 90 . Its clear that FAH = DAB, so these two equations imply that
AHF = ABD = b. So weve proven that AEF = AHF = b. The same argument can be
used to show that AFE = AHE = c. And now we can use AAA to deduce that triangle AEF is
similar to triangle ABC.
A
E
F
H
B
(b) When solving geometry problems, its a good habit to keep your diagrams as simple as possible.
For example, the following diagram shows all that we need to solve this problem, without any
extraneous points or lines. We would like to show that CX = CY or, in other words, that the
triangle CXY is isosceles. So it makes sense to try to prove that CXY = CYX.
A
Y
E
H
C
B
X
By the hockey theorem, we know that CXY = CBY. And since triangle BEC is right-angled,
we know that EBC + ECB = 90 which can be written as CBY = EBC = 90 c. So weve
managed to prove that CXY = 90 c.
It turns out that the very same argument can be used to show that CYX = 90 c as well.
Therefore, CXY = CYX as desired.
149
4. In the lectures, we tried to prove the following fact. If AB is a chord of a circle with centre O and C
is a point on the circle on the same side of AB as O, then AOB = 2 ACB. Unfortunately, our proof
was incomplete because we only considered the case when O lies inside triangle ABC. Prove that the
statement remains true in the case that O lies on one of the sides of triangle ABC and in the case that O
lies outside triangle ABC.
[3 marks]
Proof. There are two cases to consider here.
Case 1: O lies on one of the sides of triangle ABC
Without loss of generality, we can assume that O lies on the side AC. The beauty of considering the
centre is that we have the three equal radii OA = OB = OC. Equal lengths, for obvious reasons, often
lead to isosceles triangles, and our diagram happens to have two of them. Theres the isosceles triangle
OAB which means that we can label the equal angles OAB = OBA = x. Theres also the isosceles
triangle OBC, which means that we can label the equal angles OBC = OCB = y. Labelling equal
angles like this is an extremely common and extremely useful trick.
O
180 2x
Now its time for some angle chasing. In particular, since the angles in triangle OAB add up to
180 , we know that AOB = 180 2x. Also, since AC is a diameter of the circle, we know that
ABC = x + y = 90 . This equation is, of course, the same thing as y = 90 x. All we have to do
now is recognise that
2 ACB = 2y = 2(90 x ) = 180 2x = AOB.
Case 2: O lies outside triangle ABC
The beauty of considering the centre is that we have the three equal radii OA = OB = OC. Equal
lengths, for obvious reasons, often lead to isosceles triangles, and our diagram happens to have
three of them. Theres the isosceles triangle OAB which means that we can label the equal angles
OAB = OBA = x. Theres also the isosceles triangle OBC, which means that we can label the equal
angles OBC = OCB = y. And theres also the isosceles triangle OCA, which means that we can
label the equal angles OCA = OAC = z. Labelling equal angles like this is an extremely common
and extremely useful trick.
150
O
180 2x
z
xz
yz
x y
Now its time for some angle chasing. In particular, we can subtract angles to obtain the equations
ACB = y z and BAC = x z. Now lets consider the sum of the angles in triangle ABC.

We can replace all of these confusing angles with xs, ys and zs in the following way.
( x z) + (y z) + ( x + y) = 180
This equation is, of course, the same thing as 2( x + y z) = 180 . Lets keep this equation in the back
of our minds while we try and remember what it is exactly that were trying to do. We want to prove
that AOB = 2 ACB. Using the angle sum in triangle OAB, we can write AOB = 180 2x and
we already know that ACB = y z. So what were actually aiming for is the following equation.
180 2x = 2(y z)
But after rearranging, this is just the same thing as 2( x + y z) = 180 , which we already proved.
5. Extend the median AX of triangle ABC until it meets the circumcircle of triangle ABC at K. There is a
unique circle which passes through A and B and is tangent to the line BC. If this circle meets AK at L,
prove that triangle LBX and triangle KCX are congruent to each other. Hence, deduce that BKCL is a
parallelogram.
[3 marks]
Proof. Since the problem involves a tangent, it makes sense to see if we can use the alternate segment
theorem. The tangency occurs at B, so we should look for a chord of the circle which passes through B
and this must be BL. The alternate segment theorem then tells us that LAB = LBX. Lets call this
angle x.
Note that LAB = KAB since they coincide. But KAB is an angle in the circle subtended by the
chord BK. This chord also subtends an angle at C, so the hockey theorem tells us that BCK = BAK =
LAB = x as well. In particular, we have deduced that LBX = BCK = KCX.
151
X
K
To prove that triangle LBX is congruent to triangle KCX, were going to use the congruence test ASA.
We have just proved that LBX = KCX.
We know that BX = CX, since AX is a median in triangle ABC.
We have LXB = KXC, since theyre formed by the straight line segments AK and BC.
A parallelogram is defined to be a quadrilateral with two pairs of parallel sides. Since LBX = KCX,
we know that the two line segments BL and KC must be parallel. Earlier, we proved that triangle LBX
is congruent to triangle KCX. In particular, this means that the corresponding sides LX and KX are
equal in length. Now we can use the congruence test SAS to prove that triangle LXC and triangle KXB
are congruent to each other.
We have just observed that LX = KX.
We have LXC = KXB, since they are formed by the straight line segments AK and BC.
We know that CX = BX, since AX is a median in triangle ABC.
In particular, we have the equal corresponding angles XLC = XKC. However, this just means that
the two line segments CL and KB are parallel to each other. It follows that BKCL is a parallelogram.
6. Suppose that the circles C1 and C2 intersect at two points A and B and that C2 passes through the centre
of C1 , which we denote by O. Let X be a point on the arc AB which contains O and extend AX until it
intersects C1 at Y. Prove that XY = XB.
[3 marks]
Proof. Since wed like to show that XY = XB,
it suffices to show that XYB = XBY. So let
XYB = x and note that since O is the centre of
the circle C1 ,
Y
AOB = 2 AYB = 2XYB = 2x.

So we can use the hockey theorem to deduce that
AXB = AOB = 2x. The angle next door satisfies
YXB = 180 AXB = 180 2x.

152
X
O
C2
C1
Now consider the sum of the angles in triangle XYB. The equation XYB + XBY + YXB = 180
implies that
XBY = 180 XYB YXB = 180 x (180 2x ) = x.
So we have managed to prove that XYB = XBY = x.
7.
(a) In the lectures, we proved that the diameter of a circle subtends an angle of 90 . Prove the converse
of this statement in other words, prove that if ABC is a triangle with ACB = 90 , then the
circle with diameter AB passes through C.
(b) Let ABCD be a cyclic quadrilateral such that the diagonals AC and BD are perpendicular and
intersect at the point P. Let M be the midpoint of AB and let N be the point on CD such that PN
is perpendicular to CD. Prove that the points M, P, N lie on a line.
[4 marks]
Proof. There are many ways to solve this problem and here is just one.
(a) Suppose that we draw the circle with AB as diameter and that it doesnt pass through C. Then one
of the following two things must happen either the circle meets the side AC at some point D as
in the diagram below left, or you can extend the side AC until it meets the circle at some point D
as in the diagram below right. Note that in both cases, we can use the result that ADB = 90 .
D
C
C
But in either case, we have a triangle BCD which has a right angle at C as well as a right angle at
D. This violates the fact that the sum of the angles in a triangle is 180 . From this contradiction,
we can deduce that the circle with AB as diameter must actually pass through C. In particular, the
circumcircle of triangle ABC has AB as diameter.
(b) The result from part (a) tells us that AB is the diameter of triangle APB, so M is in fact the
circumcentre of triangle ABC. In particular, this means that MA = MP, because theyre both radii
of the circumcircle of triangle ABC. We can prove that M, P and N lie on a line by showing that
MPA + APD + DPN = 180 or equivalently, MPA + DPN = 90 .
Lets start by labelling MPA = x. As discussed earlier, MA = MP so triangle AMP is isosceles
and we have the equal angles MAP = MPA = x. Now we can invoke the hockey theorem in
cyclic quadrilateral ABCD with BC as the goal to obtain BDC = BAC = MAP = x. Using
the angle sum in triangle PND, we obtain
DPN = 180 PND PDN = 180 90 BDC = 90 x.

Hence, we have MPA + DPN = x + (90 x ) = 90 , as desired and M, P, N lie on a line.
153
A
M
x
B
C
8. In the hyperbolic plane, there exist pentagons all of whose angles are equal to 90 . Sketch one example
of such a pentagon in the hyperbolic plane using the Poincare disk model. What is the area of this
pentagon?
[2 marks]
Proof. The large circle below represents the Poincare disk model of the hyperbolic plane. The five
dotted curves represent five hyperbolic lines. As you can see from the diagram, they form a pentagon
all of whose angles are right angles.
Now consider the following schematic diagram for the pentagon, where the hyperbolic lines are
represented by normal straight lines. Weve divided the pentagon into three triangles labelled 1, 2
and 3 and labelled every single angle in the diagram.
154
a d g
Since each angle of the pentagon is a right angle, we have five equations that these labelled angles must
satisfy. Here, we have labelled the angles using radians rather than degrees.
a+d+g =
,
2
b=
,
2
c+e =
,
2
f +h =
,
2
i=
One of the advantages of using radians is that the area of a hyperbolic triangle is much easier to
determine. In fact, we know that the area of triangle 1 is a b c, the area of triangle 2 is
d e f , and the area of triangle 3 is g h i. Adding up the areas of these three triangles,
we deduce that the area of the pentagon is
( a b c) + ( d e f ) + ( g h i )
= 3 ( a + b + c + d + e + f + g + h + i )
= 3 ( a + d + g) (b) (c + e) ( f + h) (i )
= 3
2
2
2
2
2
=
.
2
9. Let D, E, F be points on sides AB, BC, CA of triangle ABC, respectively. If DE = BE and FE = CE,
prove that the circumcentre of triangle ADF lies on the angle bisector of DEF.
[BONUS]
Proof. Lets start by labelling the angles of triangle ABC by a, b and c. If you draw a very accurate
diagram and I recommend that you do then youll notice that the quadrilateral DEFP looks
particularly cyclic. So lets try to prove this right now. The idea is that we can determine the opposite
angles DEF and FPD of the quadrilateral in terms of a, b, c. To calculate DEF, we have
DEF = 180 BED CEF = 180 (180 2b) (180 2c) = 2b + 2c 180 .
To calculate FPD, we note that its an angle subtended by the chord DF at the centre of the circumcircle
of triangle ADF. Therefore, FPD = 2 FAD = 2a.
DEF + FPD = (2b + 2c 180 ) + 2a = 2( a + b + c) 180 = 180 .

Here, weve used the obvious fact that a + b + c = 180 , since they are the angles of triangle ABC. So
weve shown that DEF + FPD = 180 from which it follows that the quadrilateral DEFP is cyclic.
155
A
a
P
F
c
b
B
Remember that wed like to show that DEP = FEP. But these angles are subtended by the chords
DP and FP, respectively, in the circle which passes through the vertices of the cyclic quadrilateral
DEFP. These chords DP and FP are equal since they are both circumradii of triangle ADF by definition.
Since equal chords subtend equal angles, it follows that DEP = FEP. Therefore, the circumcentre of
triangle ADF lies on the angle bisector of DEF.
156
Release date:
Due date:
Assignment 2
1:30pm on Tuesday 11 May, 2010

11:00am on Tuesday 18 May, 2010
Problems
1.
(a) Suppose that ABCD is a square with the vertices labelled counterclockwise. Let
G AC denote the glide reflection consisting of a reflection in the line AC followed by a translation which takes A to C;
TBD denote the translation which takes B to D;
M AB denote the reflection in the line AB; and
R B denote a counterclockwise rotation by 90 about B.
Identify the composition G AC TBD M AB R B .
(b) If X denotes the composition G AC TBD M AB R B , let n be the minimum number of reflections
whose composition is equal to X. Determine, with proof, the value of n and carefully describe n
reflections whose composition is equal to X.
[2 marks]
2.
(a) Let M be a reflection and let R be a rotation by 90 counterclockwise. Is it possible for the
compositions M R and R M to be the same?
(b) Let Mk be a reflection through the line k and let M` be a reflection through the line `. If someone
tells you that M` Mk = Mk M` , what can you tell them about the lines k and `?
[3 marks]
3.
(a) The following is a groupoku puzzle a Cayley table for the group G, where some of the entries
are missing. Use the properties which you know about Cayley tables to fill in all of the missing
entries. Give full reasoning only for the first entry of the table that you manage to fill in.
a
b
c
d
*
*
b
*
*
c
*
*
*
*
d
*
*
*
*
*
(b) In the lectures, we have seen two groups with four elements the cyclic group C4 and the
dihedral group D2 . Prove that G is isomorphic to one of these groups by writing down an explicit
isomorphism. Furthermore, prove that what you have written down is in fact an isomorphism.
How many isomorphisms are there?
(c) Prove that the cyclic group C4 and the dihedral group D2 are not isomorphic to each other, even
though they are both abelian groups with four elements.
157
Assignment 2
(d) Give a subset of the Euclidean plane whose symmetry group is isomorphic to G. Does there exist
a finite set of points in the Euclidean plane whose symmetry group is isomorphic to G? If so,
determine the minimum number of points in such a set. If not, give a brief explanation of why
such a set does not exist.
[4 marks]
4.
(a) Write down the HVRG symbol for the frieze pattern below.
(b) Write down the HVRG symbol for the frieze pattern below.
LOOLOOLOOLOO
(c) For each of the seven types of frieze pattern, determine whether or not there exists a sequence of
capital letters which can be written in a repeating pattern to form a frieze pattern of that type. You
should assume that the capital letters look like the following.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
(d) Prove that if a symmetry group of a frieze pattern contains a glide reflection and a reflection in a
vertical mirror, then it must also contain a rotation by 180 .
[3 marks]
5.
(a) Identify the wallpaper pattern on the outside of Burnside Hall, using its RMG symbol.
(b) Identify the wallpaper pattern on the walls of room 1B24, using its RMG symbol.
(c) Write down the RMG symbol for the wallpaper pattern pictured below left.
(d) Write down the RMG symbol for the wallpaper pattern pictured below right. Draw the wallpaper
pattern and mark clearly on your diagram a point which is the centre of a rotational symmetry of
order R, a point where M mirrors meet, and a point where G proper glide axes meet.
[4 marks]
158
Assignment 2
6. Let ABC be a triangle with vertices labelled in a counterclockwise fashion. Three equilateral triangles BCX, CAY, ABZ are drawn on the sides of triangle ABC, outside of triangle ABC. Let the
centres of BCX, CAY, ABZ be K, L, M, respectively. Let RK be the rotation by 120 counterclockwise
about K, let R L be the rotation by 120 counterclockwise about L, and let R M be the rotation by 120
counterclockwise about M.
(a) Prove that R M RK R L is a translation.
(b) Determine the isometry R M RK R L by considering the location of R M RK R L ( A).
(c) Describe the location of R M RK R L ( L). If P = RK ( L), what can you say about the quadrilateral
LKPM?
(d) Hence, what can you deduce about the triangle KLM?
[3 marks]
7. Prove that Leonardos theorem does not hold in three dimensions. In other words, prove rigorously
that there exists a subset of Euclidean space whose symmetry group is neither cyclic nor dihedral.
[1 mark]
8. Explain why it follows from S3 and C6 not being isomorphic that there is no shuffle of 3 cards that you
can repeat which goes through all of the possible orderings of the deck. Prove that there is no shuffle
of n cards that you can repeat which goes through all of the possible orderings of the deck for n 3.
Determine the largest number of possible orderings which you can go through if you repeat a shuffle of
n cards for n 10.
[BONUS]
9. The groups weve been dealing with have all been examples of cyclic groups, dihedral groups or
symmetric groups however, there are many others around. Write down the Cayley table for the
smallest non-abelian group which is not a cyclic group, not a dihedral group and not a symmetric
group.
[CHALLENGE]
159
1.
(a) Suppose that ABCD is a square with the vertices labelled counterclockwise. Let
G AC denote the glide reflection consisting of a reflection in the line AC followed by a translation which takes A to C;
TBD denote the translation which takes B to D;
M AB denote the reflection in the line AB; and
R B denote a counterclockwise rotation by 90 about B.
Identify the composition G AC TBD M AB R B .
(b) If X denotes the composition G AC TBD M AB R B , let n be the minimum number of reflections
whose composition is equal to X. Determine, with proof, the value of n and carefully describe n
reflections whose composition is equal to X.
[2 marks]
Proof.
(a) With these sorts of problems, its useful to draw the rectangle on a grid of squares, like weve done
below. Weve also labelled some extra points in the diagram which well soon need to use.
F
O
B
E
Note that G AC TBD M AB R B must be a direct isometry, because its the composition of two
direct isometries and two opposite isometries. So we know that its either the identity, a translation
or a rotation, and to determine which of these it is, well calculate G AC TBD M AB R B ( P) for a
few points P.
First, lets consider what happens to the point A. Its easy to check that R B ( A) = E, M AB ( E) = C,
TBD (C ) = F, and G AC ( F ) = G in other words, G AC TBD M AB R B ( A) = G.
Now, lets consider what happens to the point B. Its easy to check that R B ( B) = B, M AB ( B) = B,
TBD ( B) = D, and G AC ( D ) = H in other words, G AC TBD M AB R B ( B) = H.
Now, lets consider what happens to the point C. Its easy to check that R B (C ) = A, M AB ( A) = A,
TBD ( A) = I, and G AC ( I ) = J in other words, G AC TBD M AB R B (C ) = J.
At this stage, we can be sure that the composition G AC TBD M AB R B cannot be the identity
or a translation. Since it takes the line segment AB to the line segment GH, we can try to guess
where the centre of rotation is. It turns out that the centre of rotation is at the point O labelled on
the diagram. In fact, we can now guess that the composition is a 180 rotation about O. Since this
is certainly true for the vertices of triangle ABC, this confirms that the composition is indeed a
180 rotation about O.
160
(b) In the lectures, we proved that every isometry is a composition of at most three reflections.
However, the composition of an odd number of reflections is an opposite isometry and cannot be
a rotation. Therefore, X can be written as the composition of 0 or 2 reflections. Since X is not equal
to the identity, it follows that X must be a composition of 2 reflections.
Let Mh and Mv denote reflections through a horizontal line and a vertical which passes through O,
respectively. The composition Mv Mh is a rotation whose centre is the intersection point of the
two mirrors and whose angle is twice the angle between the two mirrors. Hence, this is a rotation
by 180 about O, so we know that X = Mv Mh .
2.
(a) Let M be a reflection and let R be a rotation by 90 counterclockwise. Is it possible for the
compositions M R and R M to be the same?
(b) Let Mk be a reflection through the line k and let M` be a reflection through the line `. If someone
tells you that M` Mk = Mk M` , what can you tell them about the lines k and `?
[3 marks]
Proof.
(a) Let M be a reflection through the mirror ` and let R be a rotation by 90 counterclockwise about
the centre O. Without loss of generality, we can rotate the diagram so that ` is a horizontal line.
Case 1: O lies on `
Take a point P on the line ` which is not the point O. Then R( P) is a point above `, so M R( P)
must be a point below `. On the other hand, M( P) = P, so R M ( P) must be a point above `.
Hence, M R( P) 6= R M ( P) and its impossible for the compositions M R and R M to be
the same.
Case 2: O does not lie on `
Without loss of generality, let O be above the line `. Then R(O) = O is a point above `, so
M R(O) = M (O) must be a point below `. On the other hand, M (O) is a point below `,
directly below O, so R M(O) must be a point above `. Hence, M R(O) 6= R M(O) and
its impossible for the compositions M R and R M to be the same.
(b) In the lectures, we proved that the composition M` Mk is the identity, a translation or a rotation,
depending on the following three cases.
Case 1: k and ` are the same line
In this case, its obvious that M` Mk = Mk M` .
Case 2: k and ` are parallel
In this case, M` Mk is a translation equal to twice the distance from k to `. On the other
hand, Mk M` is a translation equal to twice the distance from ` to k. Therefore, these two
translations are by the same distance, but in opposite directions. So its impossible for the
equation M` Mk = Mk M` to hold.
Case 3: k and ` meet at a point O
In this case, M` Mk is a rotation about O by twice the angle from k to `. On the other
hand, Mk M` is a rotation about O by twice the angle from ` to k. Therefore, these two
rotations are by the same angle, but in opposite directions. So its possible for the equation
M` Mk = Mk M` to hold if and only if these two rotations are by 180 . This occurs precisely
when the angle from k to ` or from ` to k is 90 .
In summary, if someone tells you that M` Mk = Mk M` , then you you tell them that the lines k
and ` are either the same line or perpendicular to each other.
161
3.
a
b
c
d
*
*
b
*
*
c
*
*
*
*
d
*
*
*
*
*
isomorphism. Furthermore, prove that what you have written down is in fact an isomorphism.
How many isomorphisms are there?
(c) Prove that the cyclic group C4 and the dihedral group D2 are not isomorphic to each other, even
though they are both abelian groups with four elements.
(d) Give a subset of the Euclidean plane whose symmetry group is isomorphic to G. Does there exist
[4 marks]
Proof.
(a) The first thing to notice from the Cayley table is
that the sudoku property implies that c b cannot be equal to b, c or d. So we can deduce that
c b = a. Its now straightforward to fill in the
rest of the table using the sudoku property.
a
b
c
d
c
d
b
a
d
c
a
b
b
a
d
c
a
b
c
d
(b) The group G is isomorphic to the group C4 , which is the symmetry group of a decorated square. If
we write the elements of C4 as follows, then its Cayley table will look like the one below.
R2 : the rotation by 180 counterclockwise
I: the identity isometry

R1
R2
R3
I
R1
R2
R3
I
R1
R2
R3
R1
R2
R3
I
R2
R3
I
R1
R3
I
R1
R2
162

F ( a ) = R1
F ( b ) = R3
F ( c ) = R2
F (d) = I.
This is certainly not the only isomorphism possible. To find one, you can use the fact that the
identity in G must correspond to the identity in C4 . After youve done this, the problem can
be finished with a little trial and error. You should find that there are actually two possible
isomorphisms and the other one is given by the equations
F ( a ) = R3
F ( b ) = R1
F ( c ) = R2
F (d) = I.
(c) We can write the elements of D2 as follows.

I: the identity isometry
R: rotation by 180 counterclockwise
Mh : reflection through a horizontal line

Mv : reflection through a vertical line
One fact about the group C4 is that the element R1 composed with itself is not the identity. On the
other hand, every element of D2 composed with itself is equal to the identity. Therefore, the cyclic
group C4 and the dihedral group D2 cannot be isomorphic to each other.
(d) In the lectures, we used the decorated square as an example of a subset of the Euclidean plane
whose symmetry group is C4 . However, its possible to find a finite set in fact, the eight vertices
in the picture of the decorated square gives a subset of the Euclidean plane with symmetry group
C4 . It should also be clear that there is no smaller set with this symmetry group.
4.
LOOLOOLOOLOO
(c) For each of the seven types of frieze pattern, determine whether or not there exists a sequence of
capital letters which can be written in a repeating pattern to form a frieze pattern of that type. You
should assume that the capital letters look like the following.
(d) Prove that if a symmetry group of a frieze pattern contains a glide reflection and a reflection in a
[3 marks]
Proof.
(a) HG
(b) G
(c) The task can be accomplished for the following five types of frieze pattern.
163
none
V
R
HG
HVRG
F
A
N
E
H
F
A
N
E
H
F
A
N
E
H
F
A
N
E
H
F
A
N
E
H
In order to have a frieze group which contains a glide reflection but no reflection in a horizontal
mirror, it would be necessary to include a letter whose reflection in a horizontal mirror produces a
different letter. Since no such letter exists in the alphabet, the task cannot be accomplished for the
frieze pattern G nor the frieze pattern VRG.
(d) If we denote the glide reflection by G and the reflection in a vertical mirror by V, then the symmetry
group of the frieze pattern must also contain G V. This composition is a direct isometry, and we
know that the only direct symmetries which a frieze pattern can have are horizontal translations
or rotations by 180 . Of course, we wish to prove that G V is a rotation by 180 .
A picture of a right hand above the horizontal axis becomes a picture of a left hand above the
horizontal axis after applying V and then a picture of a right hand below the horizontal axis after
applying G. This shows that the composition G V is not a translation but a rotation by 180 .
Alternatively, we can express G as T H, where T is a horizontal translation and H is reflection
in a horizontal mirror. Then G V = T H V and, due to the way that reflections compose, we
know that H V is a rotation by 180 . The composition of a translation and a rotation by angle a is
always a rotation by angle a. It follows that G V must be a rotation by 180 .
5.
(a) Identify the wallpaper pattern on the outside of Burnside Hall, using its RMG symbol.
(b) Identify the wallpaper pattern on the walls of room 1B24, using its RMG symbol.
(d) Write down the RMG symbol for the wallpaper pattern pictured below right. Draw the wallpaper
pattern and mark clearly on your diagram a point which is the centre of a rotational symmetry of
order R, a point where M mirrors meet, and a point where G proper glide axes meet.
[4 marks]
164
Proof.
(a) 220
(b) 222
(c) 200 The maximum order of a rotation is
at most 2 since white lizards only appear in
two distinct orientations. Furthermore, a rotation of order 2 exists whose centre is the point
where two lizards kiss. There are clearly no
opposite symmetries since all lizards are facing to their left and there are no lizards facing
to their right.
(d) 423 A point which is the centre of a rotational symmetry of order 4, a point which 2
mirrors pass through, and a point where 3
proper glide axes pass through are labelled
in the diagram on the right in red, blue and
green, respectively.
6. Let ABC be a triangle with vertices labelled in a counterclockwise fashion. Three equilateral triangles BCX, CAY, ABZ are drawn on the sides of triangle ABC, outside of triangle ABC. Let the
centres of BCX, CAY, ABZ be K, L, M, respectively. Let RK be the rotation by 120 counterclockwise
about K, let R L be the rotation by 120 counterclockwise about L, and let R M be the rotation by 120
counterclockwise about M.
(a) Prove that R M RK R L is a translation.
(b) Determine the isometry R M RK R L by considering the location of R M RK R L ( A).
(c) Describe the location of R M RK R L ( L). If P = RK ( L), what can you say about the quadrilateral
LKPM?
(d) Hence, what can you deduce about the triangle KLM?
[3 marks]
Proof. If someone gives you a geometry problem,
then almost always your first step should be to
draw a nice, large, accurate diagram, possibly
using colours. For this particular problem, you
should end up with a diagram like the one on the
right. The great thing about the diagram is that it
suggests very strongly what were trying to prove
in this problem namely, that the triangle KLM
is equilateral.
It turns out that this result is usually known as
Napoleons theorem. Although its named after
Napoleon Bonaparte, we have reason to believe
that it was almost certainly never proved by him.
Y
A
Z
L
M
B
K
X
165
(a) Let R1 be a rotation by angle a1 and R2 be a rotation by angle a2 . In the lectures, we stated that the
composition R2 R1 is
a rotation by angle a1 + a2 if a1 + a2 6= 360 ; or
a translation if a1 + a2 = 360 .
Using this proposition, we know that the composition RK R L is a rotation by 120 + 120 = 240 .
Therefore, R M RK R L = R M ( RK R L ) is the composition of a rotation by 240 followed
by a rotation by 120 . Since 240 + 120 = 360 , it follows from the aforementioned fact that
R M RK R L is a translation.
(b) Here, we use the fact that since K is the centre of equilateral triangle BCX, we have BKC = 120
and BK = CK. Similarly, we have CLA = AMB = 120 , CL = AL and AM = BM. Hence, the
rotation R L takes A to C, the rotation RK takes C to B, and the rotation R M takes B to A. In other
words,
R M RK R L ( A) = R M RK (C ) = R M ( B) = A.
So we have deduced that R M RK R L is a translation which has the fixed point A. It follows that
R M RK R L is in fact the identity.
(c) Since R M RK R L is the identity, we know that R M RK R L ( L) = L. However, R L ( L) = L
implies that R M RK ( L) = L. Another way to say this is that R M ( P) = L where we let RK ( L) = P.
The fact that R M ( P) = L means that PML = 120 and PM = LM while the fact that RK ( L) = P
means that LKP = 120 and LK = PK. Therefore, the quadrilateral LKPM must look look like
the following.
120
120
In fact, it should be clear that triangles PML and LKP are similar by PAP. Furthermore, they share
the common side LP so they are in fact congruent. Thus, the quadrilateral LKPM has four equal
sides with two angles equal to 120 and the other two angles equal to 60 .
(d) We now know that KLM must be an equilateral triangle because we have deduced that it is
isosceles and contains a 60 angle. This completes the proof of Napoleons theorem.
7. Prove that Leonardos theorem does not hold in three dimensions. In other words, prove rigorously
that there exists a subset of Euclidean space whose symmetry group is neither cyclic nor dihedral.
[1 mark]
Proof. Consider the triangular pyramid formed by gluing together the edges of four congruent equilateral triangles this shape is called a regular tetrahedron. The regular tetrahedron has four vertices
which we can label 1, 2, 3 and 4. Given any permutation of these four numbers, there is a unique
isometry which permutes the vertices in that particular way. In other words, the symmetry group of
the regular tetrahedron is the symmetric group S4 , which has 4 3 2 1 = 24 elements.
166
The group S4 is certainly not isomorphic to the cyclic group C24 , since it is non-abelian. Furthermore,
it is certainly not isomorphic to the dihedral group D12 . One way to see this is to note that the group
D12 contains the element g which represents rotation by 30 . This element is such that g4 and g3 is not
equal to the identity. On the other hand, you can check that for every element g in S4 , either g4 equals
the identity or g3 equals the identity.
So what weve shown is that symmetry groups of subsets of Euclidean space need not be cyclic nor
dihedral. This means that Leonardos theorem does not hold in three dimensions at least not without
making some changes.
8. Explain why it follows from S3 and C6 not being isomorphic that there is no shuffle of 3 cards that you
can repeat which goes through all of the possible orderings of the deck. Prove that there is no shuffle
of n cards that you can repeat which goes through all of the possible orderings of the deck for n 3.
Determine the largest number of possible orderings which you can go through if you repeat a shuffle of
n cards for n 10.
[BONUS]
Proof. If we number the cards in the deck 1, 2 and 3, then a shuffle of the deck corresponds precisely
to a permutation in S3 . Suppose that it is possible to perform a shuffle s which goes through all
six of the possible orderings of the deck. Then the shuffles in other words, the permutations
e, s, s2 , s3 , s4 , s5 must be distinct. Here, we have used e to denote the identity permutation and sn to
denote the composition
s| s {z }s .
n times
But the cyclic group C6 consists of the elements I, R, R2 , R3 , R4 , R5 where I denotes the identity isometry
and R is a rotation by angle 60 . This would give us an isomorphism f : S3 C6 defined by
f (e) = I,
f ( s2 ) = R2 ,
f (s) = R,
f ( s3 ) = R3 ,
f ( s4 ) = R4 ,
f ( s5 ) = R5 .
However, we know that S3 and C6 cannot possibly be isomorphic because one is abelian while the other
is not. Therefore, there is no shuffle of three cards that you can repeat which goes through all of the
possible orderings of the deck.
Note that with a deck of n cards, there are n! = n (n 1) (n 2) 3 2 1 possible orderings
of the deck. To prove that there is no shuffle of n cards that you can repeat which goes through all of
these orderings for n 3, we need to prove that there is no isomorphism between Sn and Cn! . But
this follows directly from the fact that the cyclic group Cn! is abelian while the symmetric group Sn is
non-abelian for n 3.
Let L(n) be the largest number of possible orderings which you can go through if you repeat a shuffle
of n cards. The following table shows the values of L(n) for n 10.
n
10
L(n)
12
15
20
30
Ill let you figure out on your own how to compute these numbers.
167
9. The groups weve been dealing with have all been examples of cyclic groups, dihedral groups or
symmetric groups however, there are many others around. Write down the Cayley table for the
smallest non-abelian group which is not a cyclic group, not a dihedral group and not a symmetric
group.
[CHALLENGE]
Proof. It turns out that the smallest non-abelian group which is not a cyclic group, not a dihedral group
and not a symmetric group has eight elements and is known as the quaternion group Q8 . Its Cayley
table is below, where we have labelled the elements 1, 1, i, i, j, j, k, k.
1
1
i
i
j
j
k
k
1
1
i
i
j
j
k
k
1
1
i
i
j
j
k
k
i
i
1
1
k
k
j
j
i
i
1
1
k
k
j
j
j
j
k
k
1
1
i
i
j
j
k
k
1
1
i
i
k
k
j
j
i
i
1
1
k
k
j
j
i
i
1
1
The quaternion group Q8 comes from the set of quaternions. Just as complex numbers can be used to
deal with rotations in the plane, the quaternions can be used to deal with rotations in space. They were
discovered by an Irish mathematician named William Rowan Hamilton on 16 October 1843, while he
was going for a walk. At the time, he was so excited by the discovery that he carved the following
formulae into the bridge he was walking across.
i2 = j2 = k2 = ijk = 1
168
Release date:
Due date:
Assignment 3
1:30pm on Wednesday 19 May, 2010

11:00am on Wednesday 26 May, 2010
Problems
1.
(a) Show that at a party with five people, it is not necessarily true that there exist three people who all
know each other or three people who all dont know each other.
(b) Note that if you take the dual of the tetrahedron, then you just get the tetrahedron again. Describe
another polyhedron whose dual is itself.
(c) Does there exist a map on the torus consisting of fifty triangles?
(d) For which values of n and d is there a graph without loops or multiple edges with n vertices
of degree d?
(e) Draw a map on a genus two surface which consists of one polygon.
(f) Divide the letters of the alphabet into the smallest possible number of groups so that, within each
group, all letters are homeomorphic to each other. You should assume that the letters look like the
following and consist of infinitely thin line segments and curves.
[3 marks]
2. Prove that there does not exist a graph without loops or multiple edges with eight vertices which
(a) has vertices of degrees 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 8;
(c) has vertices of degrees 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 7;
(b) has vertices of degrees 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5;
(d) has vertices of degrees 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 6, 6.

[2 marks]
3.
(a) A domino consists of two squares, each of which is labelled with a number from 0 to 6. Verify that
there are 28 different dominoes. Is it possible to arrange them all in a loop so that adjacent halves
of neighbouring dominoes are labelled by the same number?
(b) An n-domino consists of two squares, each of which is labelled with a number from 0 to n. For
which values of n is it possible to arrange them all in a loop so that adjacent halves of neighbouring
n-dominoes are labelled by the same number?
Hint: You should use the theorem which tells you when a graph is Eulerian.
[2 marks]
4. Consider a graph G without multiple edges or loops whose vertices all have degree greater than
or equal to six.
(a) If G has V vertices and E edges, use the handshaking lemma to prove that V
E
3.
(b) Suppose that G is planar and can be drawn in the plane in such a way that there are F faces. Use
the handshaking lemma on the dual graph to prove that F 2E
3 .
169
Assignment 3
(c) Explain how these two inequalities imply that there does not exist a planar graph without loops
or multiple edges whose vertices all have degree greater than or equal to six.
[3 marks]
5. Suppose that you have a polyhedron and you are told that each face is a quadrilateral or a hexagon and
that three faces meet at every vertex. Furthermore, every quadrilateral face shares an edge with four
hexagonal faces, while every hexagonal face shares an edge with three quadrilateral faces and three
hexagonal faces.
(a) Deduce the number of quadrilateral faces and the number of hexagonal faces of the polyhedron
and draw an example of such a polyhedron.
(b) Cut off each vertex of the polyhedron using a plane which passes through the midpoints of the
three edges which meet at that vertex. This process produces a convex polyhedron from a convex
polyhedron. For example, applying this process to a tetrahedron produces an octahedron. How
many vertices, edges and faces does this new polyhedron have? How many triangular faces,
quadrilateral faces, pentagonal faces, and hexagonal faces does this new polyhedron have?
[3 marks]
6. For each of the following edge words, determine whether or not the corresponding surface is orientable
and calculate its Euler characteristic. Also, for each surface, identify it as the sphere, a connect sum of
tori or a connect sum of projective planes.
(a) abc1 b1 da1 d1 c
(b) abacb1 ded1 e1 c
1
(c) a1 a2 a3 an a11 a21 a31 a
n
Hint: Try this problem for several values of n until you find a pattern.
[3 marks]
7. The shaded region, pictured below, is a shape which gives rise to a surface after gluing the edges
together as indicated.
(a) Show that it can be described by the edge word abc1 d1 ecadb1 e1 .
(b) Determine whether or not the surface is orientable, calculate its Euler characteristic and identity
the surface using the classification of surfaces.
(c) What is the shortest possible edge word for this surface?
(d) If the surface is homeomorphic to T # X where T represents a torus and X represents a surface,
then what must X be?
[2 marks]
d
c
a
b
d
b
170
Assignment 3
8. Given an edge word W, let (W ) denote the surface corresponding to W. Prove the following facts,
where a and b represent letters, W, X, Y, Z represent words, and P and T represent the projective plane
and the torus, respectively.
(a) ( aXa1 Y )
= (b1 XbY )
(b) ( XY )
= (YX )
(c) ( X )
= ( X 1 )
(d) ( aa1 X )
= (X )
(e) ( aXaY )
= P # ( XY 1 )
(f) (bWxXb1 Yx 1 Z )
= T # (WZYX )
(g) T #P
= P #P #P
[2 marks]
9. Use the results from question 8 to prove the classification of surfaces in other words, prove that
every surface is either the sphere, a connect sum of tori or a connect sum of projective planes.
[BONUS]
10. Consider the pair (S, p) where S is a surface and p is a point on the surface. To the pair (S, p) we
associate a set G consisting of the paths in S which start at p and end at p. However, we consider two
paths a and b to be the same if you can slide the path a along the surface S, while keeping its start and
end points at p, until you get the path b. If a and b are two loops on S which start and end at p, then we
can compose them to form the loop a b which traverses a and then traverses b.
(a) Prove that the set G is a group under this composition.
(b) Prove that the group G does not depend on the choice of p in other words, if you form the
group G1 using the pair (S, p) and the group G2 using the pair (S, q), then G1
= G2 .
(c) Let a and b be two paths in a torus which start and end at some point p such that a and b intersect
only once. Show that a b = b a.
(d) Describe the group G when the surface is a torus, a projective plane and a genus two surface.
[CHALLENGE]
171
1.
(a) Show that at a party with five people, it is not necessarily true that there exist three people who all
know each other or three people who all dont know each other.
(b) Note that if you take the dual of the tetrahedron, then you just get the tetrahedron again. Describe
another polyhedron whose dual is itself.
(c) Does there exist a map on the torus consisting of fifty triangles?
(d) For which values of n and d is there a graph without loops or multiple edges with n vertices
of degree d?
(e) Draw a map on a genus two surface which consists of one polygon.
(f) Divide the letters of the alphabet into the smallest possible number of groups so that, within each
group, all letters are homeomorphic to each other. You should assume that the letters look like the
following and consist of infinitely thin line segments and curves.
[3 marks]
Proof.
(a) The diagram below left shows a party of five people where there do not exist three people who all
know each other nor three people who all dont know each other. The people are represented by
vertices, two people are connected by a blue edge if they know each other, and two people are
connected by a red edge if they dont know each other. This example shows that at a party with
five people, it is not necessarily true that there exist three people who all know each other or three
people who all dont know each other.
(b) Consider a pyramid with a square base, as shown in the diagram above right. If you take the dual
of this polyhedron, then you will obtain a pyramid with a square base.
(c) The following diagram shows a map on the torus consisting of 50 triangles. After the edges of the
rectangle are glued together in the manner indicated by the arrows, you obtain a map on the torus
which has 25 vertices, 75 edges and 50 faces.
a
a
172
Another way to construct a map on the torus consisting of 50 triangles is to start with a map on the
torus consisting of just 2 triangles. This is easy to do, since we can start with a rectangle, divide
it into two triangles using one of its diagonals, and then glue the edges together to form a torus.
Now we simply note that any map consisting of n triangles can be turned into a map consisting of
n + 2 triangles. This is because we can divide any triangular face into three triangular faces using
one vertex and three edges.
(d) The handshaking lemma implies that a graph with n vertices of degree d cannot exist if nd is an
odd number. We claim that a graph with n vertices of degree d does exist if nd is an even number.
If d is even, then place the n vertices around a circle so that they are evenly spaced. Now connect
each vertex with an edge to the d2 vertices to the left of it and to the d2 vertices to the right of it.
This will result in a graph with n vertices of degree d.
If d is odd, then it must be the case that n is even. Again we place the n vertices around a circle
so that they are evenly spaced. Note that, from the previous argument, we can construct a graph
with n vertices of degree d 1. Now simply add in the n2 edges which join each vertex to the point
diametrically opposite on the circle. This will result in a graph with n vertices of degree d.
In conclusion, a graph with n vertices of degree d exists if and only if nd is an even number.
(e) A map on a surface which consists of one polygon is the same thing as a polygon model for that
surface. We know that a genus two surface can be represented by a polygon model with eight
sides and edge word aba1 b1 cdc1 d1 . After gluing the sides of this polygon, one obtains a map
on a genus two surface which consists of one polygon, as shown in the diagram below.
(f) The letters of the alphabet can be divided into the following groups so that, within each group,
all letters are homeomorphic to each other. Furthermore, this is the smallest possible number of
groups for which this is possible.
AR
B
CGIJLMNSUVWZ
HK
P
Q
DO
EFTY
X
173
2. Prove that there does not exist a graph without loops or multiple edges with eight vertices which
(a) has vertices of degrees 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 8;
(c) has vertices of degrees 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 7;
(b) has vertices of degrees 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5;
(d) has vertices of degrees 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 6, 6.

[2 marks]
Proof.
(a) A vertex can only be connected at most once to each of the remaining 7 vertices. Therefore, the
maximum degree of a vertex in a graph with eight vertices is 7 and there does not exist a graph
with vertices of degrees 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 8.
(b) By the handshaking lemma, the sum of the degrees of the vertices in a graph must be an even
number. Since 1 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 3 + 4 + 4 + 5 = 23, there does not exist a graph with vertices of
degrees 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5.
(c) If there exists a vertex of degree 0, then no vertex can be connected to it by an edge. In particular,
no vertex in the graph can be connected to all other vertices by an edge. Therefore, there cannot
simultaneously be a vertex of degree 0 and a vertex of degree 7 in a graph with eight vertices and
there does not exist a graph with vertices of degrees 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 7.
(d) Suppose that there exists a graph with vertices of degrees 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 6, 6. Let the two vertices of
degree 6 be A and B and let the remaining vertices be C1 , C2 , C3 , C4 , C5 , C6 . Then A and B must
both be connected by an edge to at least five of the vertices in the set {C1 , C2 , C3 , C4 , C5 , C6 }. This
means that at least four vertices in the set {C1 , C2 , C3 , C4 , C5 , C6 } are connected to both A and
B. Therefore, it is impossible for there to be three vertices of degree 1 in the graph. So we can
conclude that there does not exist a graph with vertices of degrees 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 7.
3.
(a) A domino consists of two squares, each of which is labelled with a number from 0 to 6. Verify that
there are 28 different dominoes. Is it possible to arrange them all in a loop so that adjacent halves
of neighbouring dominoes are labelled by the same number?
(b) An n-domino consists of two squares, each of which is labelled with a number from 0 to n. For
which values of n is it possible to arrange them all in a loop so that adjacent halves of neighbouring
n-dominoes are labelled by the same number?
Hint: You should use the theorem which tells you when a graph is Eulerian.
[2 marks]
Proof.
(a) Here, the best thing to do is just draw out all 28 different dominoes and try to arrange them all in
a loop so that adjacent halves of neighbouring dominoes are labelled by the same number. One
way to do this is to arrange the dominoes as follows, where ( ab) stands for the domino with one
square labelled a and one square labelled b.
(00)
(02)
(01)
(24)
(11)
(46)
(12)
(61)
(22)
(13)
(23)
(35)
(33)
(50)
(34)
(03)
(44)
(36)
(45)
(62)
(55)
(25)
(56)
(51)
(66)
(14)
(60)
(40)
Lets try and solve this problem in a more graph theoretic manner, which will help us with the
more general problem concerning n-dominoes. In the world of graph theory, each edge connects
two vertices, while in the world of dominoes, each domino arises from connecting two numbered
squares. This suggests that we should form the graph with seven vertices labelled 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
174
and 6 with an edge between every pair of vertices as well as a loop from each vertex to itself. Now
every domino corresponds to an edge in this graph. Furthermore, the problem of arranging them
all in a loop so that adjacent halves of neighbouring dominoes are labelled by the same number is
equivalent to the following question.
Is it possible to walk around the graph, traversing every edge exactly once, and finish at the same
vertex that you started at?
Of course, you can just find such a path by tracing around the edges of the graph, but a much
slicker way is to invoke Eulers theorem, which tells us that a connected graph possibly with
multiple edges and loops is Eulerian if and only if it has zero vertices with odd degree or two
vertices with odd degree. Recall that a graph is said to be Eulerian if its possible to walk around
the graph, traversing every edge exactly once.
0
4
3
The graph were dealing with is certainly connected and every vertex has even degree. Therefore,
Eulers theorem tells us that its possible to walk around the graph, traversing every edge exactly
once. The fact that we finish at the same vertex that we started at follows from the fact that the
graph has zero vertices of odd degree. For if we didnt finish at the same vertex that we started at,
then the start and end vertices would necessarily have odd degree.
(b) Our earlier reasoning suggests that we should form the graph with n + 1 vertices labelled
0, 1, 2, . . . , n with an edge between every pair of vertices as well as a loop from each vertex
to itself. Now every n-domino corresponds to an edge in this graph. Furthermore, the problem of
arranging them all in a loop so that adjacent halves of neighbouring dominoes are labelled by the
same number is equivalent to the following question.
Is it possible to walk around the graph, traversing every edge exactly once, and finish at the same
vertex that you started at?
Again, we would like to invoke Eulers theorem, which tells us that a connected graph possibly
with multiple edges and loops is Eulerian if and only if it has zero vertices with odd degree or
two vertices with odd degree. If n is even, then the graph were dealing with is certainly connected
and every vertex has even degree degree n + 2, in fact. Therefore, Eulers theorem tells us that
its possible to walk around the graph, traversing every edge exactly once. The fact that we finish
at the same vertex that we started at follows from the fact that the graph has zero vertices of odd
degree. For if we didnt finish at the same vertex that we started at, then the start and end vertices
would necessarily have odd degree.
175
If n is odd, then the graph were dealing with is certainly connected but every vertex has odd
degree degree n + 2, in fact. Therefore, Eulers theorem tells us that its not possible to walk
around the graph, traversing every edge exactly once. In summary, it is possible to arrange all of
the n-dominoes in a loop so that adjacent halves of neighbouring n-dominoes are labelled by the
same number if and only if n is even.
4. Consider a graph G without multiple edges or loops whose vertices all have degree greater than
or equal to six.
(a) If G has V vertices and E edges, use the handshaking lemma to prove that V
E
3.
(b) Suppose that G is planar and can be drawn in the plane in such a way that there are F faces. Use
the handshaking lemma on the dual graph to prove that F 2E
3 .
(c) Explain how these two inequalities imply that there does not exist a planar graph without loops
or multiple edges whose vertices all have degree greater than or equal to six.
[3 marks]
Proof.
(a) Since every vertex has degree greater than or equal to six, the sum of the degrees must be greater
than or equal to 6V. However, the handshaking lemma states that the sum of the degrees is
actually equal to 2E. Therefore, 2E 6V which rearranges to give V E3 .
(b) If G is planar and can be drawn in the plane in such a way that there are F faces, then note that
each face must have at least three edges around it. This is due to our assumption that G has no
multiple edges or loops. The handshaking lemma on the dual graph states that the sum of the
numbers of edges around each face is equal to 2E. By our previous observation, the sum of the
numbers of edges around each face is at least 3F. Therefore, 2E 3F which rearranges to give
F 2E
3 .
(c) Suppose that there does exist a planar graph G without multiple edges or loops whose
vertices all have degree greater than or equal to six. Then Eulers formula states that V E + F = 2.
E
2E
However, we can substitute the inequalities V E3 and F 2E
3 to obtain 3 E + 3 2 which
rearranges to give 0 2. This is clearly a contradiction, so we can deduce that there does not exist
a planar graph G without multiple edges or loops whose vertices all have degree greater
than or equal to six.
5. Suppose that you have a polyhedron and you are told that each face is a quadrilateral or a hexagon and
that three faces meet at every vertex. Furthermore, every quadrilateral face shares an edge with four
hexagonal faces, while every hexagonal face shares an edge with three quadrilateral faces and three
hexagonal faces.
(a) Deduce the number of quadrilateral faces and the number of hexagonal faces of the polyhedron
and draw an example of such a polyhedron.
(b) Cut off each vertex of the polyhedron using a plane which passes through the midpoints of the
[3 marks]
176
Proof.
(a) Let V be the number of vertices, E the number of edges, Q the number of quadrilateral faces, and
H the number of hexagonal faces of the polyhedron. We will deduce these four values by writing
down four equations that they satisfy and solving them.
The first equation comes from applying the handshaking lemma to the polyhedron. Since three
faces meet at every vertex, every vertex of the polyhedron has degree three. Therefore, the sum of
the degrees is simply 3V and we obtain the equation 3V = 2E.
The second equation comes from applying the handshaking lemma to the dual of the polyhedron.
Since there are Q quadrilaterals and H hexagons, the sum of the numbers of edges around each
face is 4Q + 6H and we obtain the equation 4Q + 6H = 2E or equivalently, E = 2Q + 3H.
The third equation comes from a clever counting argument. The trick here is to count the number
of times a quadrilateral face shares an edge with a hexagonal face. This happens four times for
each quadrilateral face in other words, the answer is 4Q. Arguing in a different way, we can
say that this happens three times for each hexagonal face in other words, the answer is 3H. Of
course, these are just two answers to the same question, so we must have 4Q = 3H.
The fourth equation is simply Eulers formula. Since 4Q = 3H, we may substitute H = 43 Q
into the equation E = 2Q + 3H this gives us E = 6Q. And using the equation 3V = 2E, we
obtain V = 4Q. Since every face is a quadrilateral or a hexagon, we also know that F = Q + H
or equivalently, F = 73 Q. And finally, we can substitute these expressions for V, E, F into Eulers
formula to obtain
VE+F = 2
7
4Q 6Q + Q = 2
3
Q = 6.
The fact that H = 43 Q then leads to H = 8. This information can be used to draw the polyhedron
and you should obtain something like the diagram below.
(b) Note that the polyhedron drawn above has 24 vertices. After applying the process, each of
the 14 faces of the original polyhedron becomes a little smaller, but retains its number of sides.
However, 24 triangular faces are created, one for each vertex of the original polyhedron. Therefore,
the resulting polyhedron has 38 faces in total 24 triangular faces, 6 quadrilateral faces and 8
hexagonal faces.
177
By applying the handshaking lemma to the dual of the resulting polyhedron, we find that its
number of edges must satisfy 2E = 24 3 + 6 4 + 8 6 or equivalently, E = 72. Therefore, the
resulting polyhedron has 72 edges in total. Another way to obtain this result is to note that the
resulting polyhedron has three edges for every vertex of the original polyhedron.
Now we can apply Eulers formula to determine that the number of vertices of the resulting
polyhedron must satisfy V E + F = 2 or equivalently, V = 36. Another way to obtain this result
is to note that the resulting polyhedron has one vertex for each edge of the original polyhedron.
6. For each of the following edge words, determine whether or not the corresponding surface is orientable
and calculate its Euler characteristic. Also, for each surface, identify it as the sphere, a connect sum of
tori or a connect sum of projective planes.
(a) abc1 b1 da1 d1 c
(b) abacb1 ded1 e1 c
1
(c) a1 a2 a3 an a11 a21 a31 a
n
Hint: Try this problem for several values of n until you find a pattern.
[3 marks]
Proof. The classification of surfaces implies that we can recognise a surface from its orientability and its
Euler characteristic. For this question, we will use this fact to identify surfaces only from their edge
words.
(a) The polygon model for the surface is shown below. It turns out that all of the vertices get glued
together.
Since we have V = 1, E = 4 and F = 1, we can calculate that the Euler characteristic is =
V E + F = 1 4 + 1 = 2. The surface is orientable since every letter in the edge word appears
with its inverse. It follows that the surface is the connect sum of two tori in other words, a
genus 2 surface.
a
c
b
d
(b) The polygon model for the surface is shown on the right, with the numbers on the vertices
indicating which vertices get glued together.
Since we have V = 2, E = 5 and F = 1, we can calculate that the Euler characteristic is =
V E + F = 2 5 + 1 = 2. The surface is non-orientable since the letter a in the edge word does
not appear with its inverse. It follows that the surface is the connect sum of four projective planes.
178
2
e
b
1
2
c
e
1
(c) The polygon model for the surface in this case is hard to draw, but the surface is orientable since
every letter appears with its inverse. Furthermore, we know that E = n and F = 1, so it only
remains to determine the value of V. Note that the following vertices get glued together, where
tailk denotes the vertex which is at the tail of the edge labelled ak and tipk denotes the vertex which
is at the tip of the edge labelled ak .
tail1 tip2 tail3 tip4 tailn1 tipn
Similarly, the following vertices get glued together as well.
tip1 tail2 tip3 tail4 tipn1 tailn
a1
an
a2
a3
a3
a2
an
a1
Now if youve played around with the problem enough, you will have realised that there are two
cases to consider. When n is odd, tipn gets glued to tail1 and tailn gets glued to tip1 , so there are
two vertices, corresponding to the two sequences above.
On the other hand, when n is even, tipn gets glued to tip1 and tailn gets glued to tail1 , so the two
vertices corresponding to the two sequences above get glued together to give only one vertex.
So when n is odd, the Euler characteristic is 2 n + 1 = 3 n and the surface is a connect sum
1
of n
2 tori. And when n is even, the Euler characteristic is 1 n + 1 = 2 n and the surface is a
connect sum of n2 tori.
179
7. The shaded region, pictured below, is a shape which gives rise to a surface after gluing the edges
together as indicated.
(a) Show that it can be described by the edge word abc1 d1 ecadb1 e1 .
(b) Determine whether or not the surface is orientable, calculate its Euler characteristic and identity
the surface using the classification of surfaces.
(c) What is the shortest possible edge word for this surface?
(d) If the surface is homeomorphic to T # X where T represents a torus and X represents a surface,
then what must X be?
[2 marks]
d
c
a
b
Proof.
(a) The idea here is that we can turn this shape with gluing instructions into a polygon with gluing
instructions which represents the same surface. We already know how to deal with polygon
models, which will allow us to write down an edge word for the surface and identify exactly what
it is. The way to construct a polygon model is to simply cut the shape open to create a polygon
and remember how the cuts glue together by inserting some gluing instructions. You can do all
sorts of cuts, but the one well choose is to cut from the top-left corner of the outer square to the
top-left corner of the inner square.
d
d
e
e
c
a
c
a
So an edge word for this surface can be obtained by reading around the boundary of the polygon.
180
If we do this starting in the top-left corner and moving around the polygon counterclockwise, we
obtain abc1 d1 ecadb1 e1 .
(b) The polygon model for the surface is shown below. It turns out that all of the vertices get glued
together. Since we have V = 1, E = 5 and F = 1, we can calculate the Euler characteristic
= V E + F = 1 5 + 1 = 3. The surface is non-orientable since the letter a in the edge word
does not appear with its inverse. It follows that the surface is the connect sum of five projective
planes.
a
e
b
d
e
(c) This edge word contains ten letters and is, in fact, the equal shortest possible edge word for the
connect sum of five projective planes. Another way to express the connect sum of five projective
planes by an edge word with ten letters is aabbccddee.
(d) We know that T # X is the connect sum of five projective planes and hence, is non-orientable. Since
T is orientable, it follows that X must be non-orientable. Furthermore, we can use the relation
( T # X ) = ( T ) + ( X ) 2 to deduce that ( X ) = 1. We may now use the classification of
surfaces to deduce that X is the connect sum of three projective planes.
8. Given an edge word W, let (W ) denote the surface corresponding to W. Prove the following facts,
where a and b represent letters, W, X, Y, Z represent words, and P and T represent the projective plane
and the torus, respectively.
(a) ( aXa1 Y )
= (b1 XbY )
(b) ( XY )
= (YX )
(c) ( X )
= ( X 1 )
(X )
(d) ( aa1 X ) =
(e) ( aXaY )
= P # ( XY 1 )
(f) (bWxXb1 Yx 1 Z )
= T # (WZYX )
(g) T #P
= P #P #P
[2 marks]
Proof.
(a) Clearly, the following two polygon models represent the same surface, since the gluing is performed in precisely the same way. Hence, we have ( aXa1 Y )
= (b1 XbY ).
181
(b) One polygon model can correspond to different edge words, depending on where we choose to
start reading the edges from. Hence, ( XY )
= (YX ).
Y
X
(c) One polygon model can also correspond to different edge words, depending on which direction
we choose to start reading the edges from. Hence, ( X )
= ( X 1 ).
X
(d) As shown in the following diagram, if a appears next to a1 in the edge word, then the two
corresponding edges in the polygon model can be glued together and removed from the edge
word. Hence, ( aa1 X )
= ( X ).
X
(e) The polygon model corresponding to the edge word aXaY is shown below left. Consider cutting
along the diagonal labelled b and pasting the two edges labelled a together. The result is the
polygon model corresponding to the edge word bbXY 1 shown below right. Hence, ( aXaY )
=
(bbXY ) = (bb) # ( XY ) = P # ( XY ).
182
a
b
(f) The polygon model corresponding to the edge word aWbXa1 Yb1 Z is shown below left. Consider cutting along the diagonal labelled c and pasting the two edges labelled a together. The
result is the polygon model corresponding to the edge word cbXWc1 ZYb shown below right.
a
c
X
Now consider cutting along the diagonal labelled d and pasting the two edges labelled b together.
The result is the polygon model corresponding to the edge word cdZYXWc1 d1 shown below
right.
c
Z
X
W
d
c
Hence, ( aWbXa1 Yb1 Z )

= (cdZYXWc1 d1 )
= (c1 d1 cdZYXW )
= T # (WZYX ).
(g) The polygon model corresponding to the edge word aba1 b1 cc is shown below left. Consider
cutting along the diagonal labelled d and pasting the two edges labelled c together. This gives the
183
polygon model corresponding to the edge word a1 da1 b1 db1 as shown below centre. Now
consider cutting along the diagonal labelled e and pasting the two edges labelled a together. This
gives the polygon model corresponding to the edge word d1 b1 db1 ee as shown below right.
Finally, consider cutting along the diagonal labelled f and pasting the two edges labelled b together.
This gives the polygon model corresponding to the edge word d1 d1 f f ee or equivalently, xxyyzz.
c
d
a
d
e
So weve managed to prove that ( aba1 b1 cc)

= ( xxyyzz), but this is equivalent to the equation
T #P
= P #P #P.
9. Use the results from question 8 to prove the classification of surfaces in other words, prove that
every surface is either the sphere, a connect sum of tori or a connect sum of projective planes.
[BONUS]
Proof. The proof of the classification of surfaces consists of the sketch proof provided in the lecture
notes as well as the results from question 8.
10. Consider the pair (S, p) where S is a surface and p is a point on the surface. To the pair (S, p) we
associate a set G consisting of the paths in S which start at p and end at p. However, we consider two
paths a and b to be the same if you can slide the path a along the surface S, while keeping its start and
end points at p, until you get the path b. If a and b are two loops on S which start and end at p, then we
can compose them to form the loop a b which traverses a and then traverses b.
(a) Prove that the set G is a group under this composition.
(b) Prove that the group G does not depend on the choice of p in other words, if you form the
group G1 using the pair (S, p) and the group G2 using the pair (S, q), then G1
= G2 .
(c) Let a and b be two paths in a torus which start and end at some point p such that a and b intersect
only once. Show that a b = b a.
(d) Describe the group G when the surface is a torus, a projective plane and a genus two surface.
[CHALLENGE]
I wont provide a proof to this question, but leave it as a challenge for you. The group G that Ive defined
is called the fundamental group of the surface S and is usually written as 1 (S, p). The fundamental
group is a very useful tool and you can read about it in just about any introductory text on topology.
184
Sample Midterm Test
FAMILY NAME
GIVEN NAME(S)
STUDENT NUMBER
DATE
any date
START TIME
any time
FINISH TIME
one hour after the start time
EXAMINER
Norman Do
Instructions
1. Fill in your name and student number clearly in the space provided above.
2. Do not remove any pages from this booklet all of your writing, even rough work, must be handed in.
3. Calculators, books and notes are not permitted.
4. You are encouraged to spend the first few minutes reading through the problems. The problems are not
ordered in terms of difficulty and the number of marks available does not indicate the difficulty of the
problem.
5. Please write your rough work and solution in the space provided on the page where the question is
printed. If you use up all of that space, then you may write on the back of the page or on one of the
pages provided at the back of the booklet. If you use up all of that space as well, then please raise your
hand and ask for another sheet of paper.
6. The test booklet should consist of this cover, pages 1 through 6 which contain the questions, and pages
7 through 10 which are blank. Please inform me if your booklet is defective.
185
Sample Midterm Test
1. For each of the following statements, indicate whether it is true or false. If you indicate that a statement
is true, then you must explain why it is true and if you indicate that a statement is false, then you must
explain why it is false.
(a) The centroid of a triangle always lies inside the triangle. (Recall that the centroid of a triangle is
where the medians meet.)
(b) Hyperbolic geometry obeys all of Euclids axioms.
(c) The composition of a reflection followed by a rotation can only be a reflection.
(d) There exists a graph with seven vertices of degrees 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3.
(e) It is possible to build a house with exactly six rooms such that each room has exactly five doors
and there are exactly three doors which lead outside.
[2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 10 marks]
186
2.
Sample Midterm Test
(a) Prove that the diameter of a circle subtends an angle of 90 . In other words, if AB is the diameter
of a circle and C is a point on the circle, then ACB = 90 . (You may only use basic facts about
isosceles triangles, the sum of the angles in a triangle, and so on.)
(b) Start with a cyclic quadrilateral ABCD.
Let W be the point on BD such that AW is perpendicular to BD.
Let X be the point on AC such that BX is perpendicular to AC.
Let Y be the point on BD such that CY is perpendicular to BD.
Let Z be the point on AC such that DZ is perpendicular to AC.
Prove that the quadrilateral WXYZ is cyclic.
[3 + 3 = 6 marks]
187
3.
Sample Midterm Test
(a) Fill in each entry of the middle column with the word direct or opposite and each entry of the right
column with the word yes or no.
ISOMETRY
DIRECT OR OPPOSITE
FIXED POINTS
translation
rotation
reflection
glide reflection
(b) Suppose that ABCD is a rectangle with the vertices labelled counterclockwise and such that
BC = 2AB. Let
GCD denote the glide reflection consisting of a reflection in the line CD followed by a translation which takes C to D;
TDB denote the translation which takes D to B;
R B denote a counterclockwise rotation by 90 about B; and
M AB denote the reflection in the line AB.
[2 + 4 = 6 marks]
188
4.
Sample Midterm Test
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
g
h
*
f
c
a
d
*
*
f
a
*
g
b
e
d
e
*
f
b
*
c
*
g
f
c
*
g
h
d
*
b
h
*
d
c
*
e
b
a
*
b
c
d
*
f
g
h
d
*
h
a
b
*
f
c
*
a
g
e
d
h
*
*
(b) In the lectures, we have seen two groups with eight elements the cyclic group C8 and the
isomorphism. (You do not have to prove that it is an isomorphism.)
(c) Prove that the cyclic group C8 and the dihedral group D4 are not isomorphic.
[2 + 2 + 2 = 6 marks]
189
5.
Sample Midterm Test
HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHX
(c) Write down the RMG symbol for the wallpaper pattern pictured below left. Mark clearly on the
diagram a point which is the centre of a rotational symmetry of order R, a point where M mirrors
meet, and a point where G proper glide axes meet.
(d) Write down the RMG symbol for the wallpaper pattern pictured below right.
(e) Prove that if a symmetry group of a frieze pattern contains a reflection in a vertical mirror and a
rotation by 180 , then it must also contain a glide reflection.
[1 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 2= 7 marks]
190
Sample Midterm Test
6. Suppose that you have a polyhedron with V vertices, E edges and F faces. You are told that each face is
a triangle or a quadrilateral and that four faces meet at every vertex. Furthermore, every triangular face
shares an edge with three quadrilateral faces, while every quadrilateral face shares an edge with four
triangular faces.
(a) Use the handshaking lemma applied to the polyhedron to prove that 4V = 2E.
(b) Let T be the number of triangular faces and Q be the number of quadrilateral faces of the
polyhedron. Use the handshaking lemma applied to the dual of the polyhedron to prove that
E = 32 T + 2Q.
(c) Prove the equation 3T = 4Q.
(d) Use these equations along with anything else you know about the polyhedron to deduce the
values of T and Q.
[1 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 5 marks]
191
FAMILY NAME
DO
GIVEN NAME(S)
NORMAN
STUDENT NUMBER
NOT APPLICABLE
DATE
Sunday 16 May, 2010
START TIME
6:00pm
FINISH TIME
7:00pm
EXAMINER
Norman Do
Sample Midterm Test Solutions
Instructions
problem.
192
(a) The centroid of a triangle always lies inside the triangle. (Recall that the centroid of a triangle is
where the medians meet.)
(b) Hyperbolic geometry obeys all of Euclids axioms.
(c) The composition of a reflection followed by a rotation can only be a reflection.
(d) There exists a graph with seven vertices of degrees 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3.
(e) It is possible to build a house with exactly six rooms such that each room has exactly five doors
and there are exactly three doors which lead outside.
[2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 10 marks]
(a) TRUE. A median is a line segment which joins a vertex of a triangle to the midpoint of the opposite
side. Therefore, the three medians of a triangle lie inside the triangle and the point where they
meet namely, the centroid must also lie inside the triangle.
(b) FALSE. We know that in Euclidean geometry in other words, the geometry which follows from
Euclids axioms the parallel postulate holds. The parallel postulate states that, given a line and
a point not on the line, there exists a unique line through the given point, parallel to the given line.
On the other hand, in hyperbolic geometry, given a line and a point not on the line, there exist
infinitely many lines through the given point, parallel to the given line. This means that hyperbolic
geometry does not obey all of Euclids axioms.
(c) FALSE. The composition of a reflection by a rotation can be a glide reflection. For example,
consider a square ABCD with the vertices labelled counterclockwise. Let M be the reflection in the
line AC and let R be the rotation by 90 clockwise about D. You can check that the composition
R M is a glide reflection along the axis XY where X is the midpoint of BC and Y is the midpoint
of AD.
(d) TRUE. You can find an example of such a graph pictured below.
1
0
(e) FALSE. Consider the graph which has one vertex corresponding to each room in the house as
well as one vertex for the outside this makes seven vertices in total. Let the edges in the graph
correspond to the doors in the house.
Since each room has exactly five doors, each vertex corresponding to a room must have degree
exactly five. Since there are exactly three doors which lead outside, the vertex corresponding to
the outside must have degree exactly three. Therefore, the sum of the degrees in the graph must
be 6 5 + 1 3 = 33. The handshaking lemma asserts that the sum of the degrees in any graph is
193
equal to twice the number of edges in the graph. So weve deduced that the graph must have 16 12
edges, which is clearly a contradiction. Hence, it is not possible to build a house with exactly six
rooms such that each room has exactly five doors and there are exactly three doors which lead
outside.
194
2.
(a) Prove that the diameter of a circle subtends an angle of 90 . In other words, if AB is the diameter
of a circle and C is a point on the circle, then ACB = 90 . (You may only use basic facts about
isosceles triangles, the sum of the angles in a triangle, and so on.)
(b) Start with a cyclic quadrilateral ABCD.
Let W be the point on BD such that AW is perpendicular to BD.
Let X be the point on AC such that BX is perpendicular to AC.
Let Y be the point on BD such that CY is perpendicular to BD.
Let Z be the point on AC such that DZ is perpendicular to AC.
Prove that the quadrilateral WXYZ is cyclic.
[3 + 3 = 6 marks]
(a) Let O be the centre of the circle. The beauty of considering the centre is that we have the three
equal radii OA = OB = OC. Equal lengths, for obvious reasons, often lead to isosceles triangles,
and our diagram happens to have two of them. There is the isosceles triangle OAC which means
that we can label the equal angles OAC = OCA = x. Theres also the isosceles triangle OBC,
which means that we can label the equal angles OBC = OCB = y. Labelling equal angles like
this is an extremely common and extremely useful trick.
C
x y
Now its time for some angle chasing. In particular, lets consider the sum of the angles in triangle
ABC.
We can replace all of these confusing angles with xs and ys in the following way.
x + ( x + y) + y = 180
This equation is, of course, the same thing as 2( x + y) = 180 or, equivalently, x + y = 90 . All we
have to do now is recognise that ACB = x + y so we have proven that ACB = 90 .
(b) Hopefully, you remember that right angles often lead to cyclic quadrilaterals. In this particular
diagram, we happen to have four right angles and these lead to two cyclic quadrilaterals. One of
them is quadrilateral ABWX, which is cyclic because AWB = AXB = 90 . The other one is
quadrilateral CDYZ, which is cyclic because CYD = CZD = 90 . Our goal is to show that the
quadrilateral WXYZ is also cyclic and we essentially know only two ways to do this. Either we
195
show that it has opposite angles which add to 180 or we show that it obeys the hockey theorem.
For this particular problem, the latter is the right way to go.
A
D
X
Y
x
W
So lets start by labelling XWY = x. The natural thing to do, of course, is label the angle
next door XWB = 180 x. Now we can use the fact that the quadrilateral ABWX is cyclic
to label the opposite angle XAB = x. Since the large quadrilateral ABCD is cyclic, we can
use the hockey theorem to label CDB = CAB = XAB = x. In particular, this means that
CDY = x. Now we can use the fact that the quadrilateral CDYZ is cyclic to label the opposite
angle YZC = 180 x. And again the natural thing to do is label the angle next door XZY = x.
But just hold on a second we now know that XWY = XZY so, by the converse of the hockey
theorem, the quadrilateral WXYZ is indeed cyclic.
196
3.
ISOMETRY
DIRECT OR OPPOSITE
FIXED POINTS
translation
rotation
reflection
glide reflection
(b) Suppose that ABCD is a rectangle with the vertices labelled counterclockwise and such that
BC = 2AB. Let
GCD denote the glide reflection consisting of a reflection in the line CD followed by a translation which takes C to D;
TDB denote the translation which takes D to B;
R B denote a counterclockwise rotation by 90 about B; and
M AB denote the reflection in the line AB.
[2 + 4 = 6 marks]
(a) The completed table is as follows.

ISOMETRY
DIRECT OR OPPOSITE
FIXED POINTS
translation
DIRECT
NO
rotation
DIRECT
YES
reflection
OPPOSITE
YES
glide reflection
OPPOSITE
NO
(b) With these sorts of problems, its useful to draw the rectangle on a grid of squares. Its also useful
to keep in mind the table above and the fact that it applies to transformations which are not the
identity. In other words, the identity is a special case of an isometry which doesnt fit into the
table.
First, we note that M AB R B TDB GCD must be a direct isometry, because its the composition
of two direct isometries and two opposite isometries. So we know that it is either the identity,
197
a translation or a rotation, and to determine which of these it is, well calculate M AB R B

TDB GCD ( P) for a few points P. First, lets consider what happens to the point C. Its easy
to check that GCD (C ) = D, TDB ( D ) = B, R B ( B) = B, and M AB ( B) = B in other words,
M AB R B TDB GCD (C ) = B.
Now, lets consider what happens to the point A. Its easy to check that GCD ( A) = E as shown
in the diagram, TDB ( E) = D, R B ( D ) = F as shown in the diagram, and M AB ( F ) = G in other
words, M AB R B TDB GCD ( A) = G.
At this stage, we can be sure that the composition MBC G AB R D TAC cannot be the identity
or a translation. Since it takes the line segment AC to the line segment GB, we can try to guess
where the centre of rotation is. It turns out that the centre of rotation is at the point H labelled in
the diagram. To prove this, all we need to do is show that H is a fixed point of the composition.
Its easy to check that GCD ( H ) = I as shown in the diagram, TDB ( I ) = H, R B ( H ) = J as shown in
the diagram, and M AB ( J ) = H in other words, M AB R B TDB GCD ( H ) = H. Therefore, H
is the centre of the rotation and, since it takes A to G, it must be a rotation by AHG = 90 in the
clockwise direction or equivalently, 270 in the counterclockwise direction.
198
4.
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
g
h
*
f
c
a
d
*
*
f
a
*
g
b
e
d
e
*
f
b
*
c
*
g
f
c
*
g
h
d
*
b
h
*
d
c
*
e
b
a
*
b
c
d
*
f
g
h
d
*
h
a
b
*
f
c
*
a
g
e
d
h
*
*
(b) In the lectures, we have seen two groups with eight elements the cyclic group C8 and the
(c) Prove that the cyclic group C8 and the dihedral group D4 are not isomorphic.
[2 + 2 + 2 = 6 marks]
(a) The missing entry h a is already in the same row as a, b, c, d, g, h and already in the same column
as a, c, d, f , g, h. Since it must be one of the letters a, b, c, d, e, f , g, h, we can use the sudoku property
to deduce that h a = e. Using the same sort of strategy, we can complete the Cayley table for G as
follows.
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
g
h
b
f
c
a
d
e
c
f
a
h
g
b
e
d
e
d
f
b
a
c
h
g
f
c
e
g
h
d
a
b
h
g
d
c
f
e
b
a
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
d
e
h
a
b
g
f
c
b
a
g
e
d
h
c
f
(b) The group G is isomorphic to the group D4 , the symmetry group of the square. If we draw the
square ABCD with the vertices labelled counterclockwise and A in the top left corner, then we
can write the elements of D4 as follows.
199
Mh : reflection in a horizontal mirror

Mv : reflection in a vertical mirror
M AC : reflection in the line AC
MBD : reflection in the line BD
We may now write out the Cayley table for D4 .
R1
R2
R3
Mh
Mv
M AC
MBD
I
R1
R2
R3
Mh
Mv
M AC
MBD
I
R1
R2
R3
Mh
Mv
M AC
MBD
R1
R2
R3
I
M AC
MBD
Mv
Mh
R2
R3
I
R1
Mv
Mh
MBD
M AC
R3
I
R1
R2
MBD
M AC
Mh
Mv
Mh
MBD
Mv
M AC
I
R2
R3
R1
Mv
M AC
Mh
MBD
R2
I
R1
R3
M AC
Mh
MBD
Mv
R1
R3
I
R2
MBD
Mv
M AC
Mh
R3
R1
R2
I
An explicit isomorphism F : G D4 is given by the equations

F ( a ) = R1
F ( b ) = Mh
F (c) = MBD
F ( d ) = R3
F ( e ) = Mv
F( f ) = I
F ( g ) = R2
F (h) = M AC .
This is certainly not the only possible isomorphism. To find one, you can use the fact that the
identity in G must correspond to the identity in D4 . Furthermore, in G there are six elements
which square to give the identity and in D4 there are six elements which square to give the identity
these six elements in G must correspond to these six elements in D4 . In particular, this also tells
us that the elements a and d in G must correspond to the elements R1 and R3 in D4 . After you
have obtained some facts like this, the problem can be finished with a little trial and error.
(c) All cyclic groups are abelian so, in particular, C8 is abelian. On the other hand, the dihedral group
D4 is not abelian since MBD Mv 6= Mv MBD . Therefore, the cyclic group C8 and the dihedral
group D4 are not isomorphic to each other.
200
5.
HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHX
(e) Prove that if a symmetry group of a frieze pattern contains a reflection in a vertical mirror and a
rotation by 180 , then it must also contain a glide reflection.
[1 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 2= 7 marks]
(a) VRG
(b) HVRG
(c) 211 A point which is the centre of a rotational symmetry of order 2, a point which 1 mirror passes through, and a point where 1 proper
glide axis passes through are labelled in the diagram on the right in red, green and blue, respectively.
(d) 101
201
(e) If we denote the reflection in a vertical mirror by V and the rotation by 180 by R, then the
symmetry group of the frieze pattern must also contain R V. This composition is an opposite
isometry and it is easy to see that it is either reflection in a horizontal mirror or a glide reflection
along a horizontal axis. (Remember that the centre of rotation for R does not have to lie on the
mirror for V.) Since the symmetry group of a frieze pattern contains a horizontal translation by
definition, in either case, the symmetry group of the frieze pattern must contain a glide reflection
along a horizontal axis.
So how do you know that the composition R V is a reflection in a horizontal mirror or a glide
reflection along a horizontal axis? One way to see this is to consider what happens to the picture
of a left footprint walking right, above the centre of rotation of R. After applying the reflection
V, this becomes a right footprint walking left, above the centre of rotation of R. And then after
applying R, this becomes a right footprint walking right below the centre of rotation of R. The
only way to start with a left footprint walking right and end up with a right footprint walking
right is via a reflection in a horizontal mirror or a glide reflection along a horizontal axis.
202
a triangle or a quadrilateral and that four faces meet at every vertex. Furthermore, every triangular face
shares an edge with three quadrilateral faces, while every quadrilateral face shares an edge with four
triangular faces.
(b) Let T be the number of triangular faces and Q be the number of quadrilateral faces of the
polyhedron. Use the handshaking lemma applied to the dual of the polyhedron to prove that
E = 32 T + 2Q.
(c) Prove the equation 3T = 4Q.
values of T and Q.
[1 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 5 marks]
(a) Lets apply the handshaking lemma to the polyhedron. Since four faces meet at every vertex, every
vertex of the polyhedron has degree four. Therefore, the sum of the degrees is simply 4V and we
obtain the equation 4V = 2E.
(b) Now lets apply the handshaking lemma to the dual of the polyhedron. Since there are T triangles
and Q quadrilaterals, the sum of the numbers of edges around each face is 3T + 4Q and we obtain
the equation 3T + 4Q = 2E or equivalently, E = 23 T + 2Q.
(c) The trick here is to count the number of times a triangular face shares an edge with a quadrilateral
face. This happens three times for each triangular face in other words, the answer is 3T. Arguing
in a different way, we can say that this happens four times for each quadrilateral face in other
words, the answer is 4Q. Of course, these are just two answers to the same question, so we must
have 3T = 4Q.
(d) Since 3T = 4Q, we may substitute T = 43 Q into the equation from part (b) this gives us E = 4Q.
And using the equation from part (a), we obtain V = 2Q.
Since every face is a triangle or a quadrilateral, we also know that F = T + Q or equivalently,
F = 73 Q. And finally, we can substitute these expressions for V, E, F into Eulers formula to obtain
VE+F = 2
7
2Q 4Q + Q = 2
3
The fact that T = 43 Q then leads to T = 8.
203
Q = 6.
Midterm Test
FAMILY NAME
GIVEN NAME(S)
STUDENT NUMBER
DATE
Thursday 20 May, 2010
START TIME
11:05 am
FINISH TIME
12:20 pm
EXAMINER
Norman Do
Instructions
problem.
204
Midterm Test
(a) Let ABC be an acute triangle with circumcentre O and orthocentre H. If O and H are the same
point, then the triangle must be equilateral. (Recall that the circumcentre of a triangle is where the
perpendicular bisectors meet and the orthocentre of a triangle is where the altitudes meet.)
(b) In spherical geometry, given a line `, there exist infinitely many lines which are parallel to `.
(c) Every glide reflection which is not a reflection can be expressed as the composition of three
reflections but cannot be expressed as the composition of fewer than three reflections.
(d) There are exactly three graphs without loops or multiple edges with three vertices, where
we do not distinguish between two graphs if they are isomorphic.
(e) It is possible at a party with 100 people to have one person who knows no other people and one
person who knows 99 other people. (You should assume that acquaintance is mutual so that if
person A knows person B, then person B knows person A.)
[2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 10 marks]
205
2.
Midterm Test
(a) Use the hockey theorem to prove that if ABCD is a cyclic quadrilateral, then
ABC + CDA = 180
and
BCD + DAB = 180 .
(b) Let D, E, F be points on the sides BC, CA, AB of triangle ABC, respectively. Prove that the
circumcircles of triangles AEF, BFD and CDE intersect at a point.
Hint: Let the circumcircle of triangles BFD and CDE meet at the points D and P and prove that
the quadrilateral AEPF is cyclic.
[3 + 3 = 6 marks]
206
3.
Midterm Test
ISOMETRY
DIRECT OR OPPOSITE
FIXED POINTS
translation
rotation
reflection
glide reflection
(b) Suppose that ABCD is a square with the vertices labelled counterclockwise. Let
TAC denote the translation which takes A to C;
GBC denote the glide reflection consisting of a reflection in the line BC followed by a translation
which takes B to C;
R D denote a counterclockwise rotation by 90 about D; and
M AD denote the reflection in the line AD.
Identify the composition TAC GBC R D M AD .
[2 + 3 = 5 marks]
207
4.
Midterm Test
a
b
c
d
e
f
e
d
*
b
*
c
d
f
*
*
*
a
f
e
*
*
*
b
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
e
*
*
*
b
*
*
*
(c) Draw a subset of the Euclidean plane whose symmetry group is isomorphic to G. Does there exist
a finite set of points in the Euclidean plane whose symmetry group is isomorphic to G? If so, draw
an example which uses the minimum number of points. If not, briefly explain why such a set does
not exist.
[2 + 2 + 2 = 6 marks]
208
5.
Midterm Test
(b) Find a sequence of two or more distinct capital letters from the set {N, O, R, M} which can be
written in a repeating pattern to form a frieze pattern whose HVRG symbol is R.
(e) Prove that if the symmetry group of a frieze pattern contains a rotation by 180 and a glide
reflection, then it must also contain a reflection in a vertical mirror.
[1 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 2 = 7 marks]
209
Midterm Test
6. Suppose that you have a polyhedron with V vertices, E edges and F faces. You are told that each face
is a triangle or a pentagon and that four faces meet at every vertex. Furthermore, every triangular
face shares an edge with three pentagonal faces, while every pentagonal face shares an edge with five
triangular faces.
(b) Let T be the number of triangular faces and P be the number of pentagonal faces of the polyhedron.
Use the handshaking lemma applied to the dual of the polyhedron to prove that E = 23 T + 52 P.
(c) Prove the equation 3T = 5P.
values of T and P.
(e) Draw an example of a planar graph corresponding to such a polyhedron. Draw an example of
such a polyhedron.
[1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 1 = 6 marks]
210
FAMILY NAME
DO
GIVEN NAME(S)
NORMAN
STUDENT NUMBER
NOT APPLICABLE
DATE
Thursday 20 May, 2010
START TIME
11:05 am
FINISH TIME
12:20 pm
EXAMINER
Norman Do
Midterm Test Solutions
Instructions
problem.
211
(a) Let ABC be an acute triangle with circumcentre O and orthocentre H. If O and H are the same
point, then the triangle must be equilateral. (Recall that the circumcentre of a triangle is where the
perpendicular bisectors meet and the orthocentre of a triangle is where the altitudes meet.)
(b) In spherical geometry, given a line `, there exist infinitely many lines which are parallel to `.
(c) Every glide reflection which is not a reflection can be expressed as the composition of three
(d) There are exactly three graphs without loops or multiple edges with three vertices, where
we do not distinguish between two graphs if they are isomorphic.
(e) It is possible at a party with 100 people to have one person who knows no other people and one
person who knows 99 other people. (You should assume that acquaintance is mutual so that if
person A knows person B, then person B knows person A.)
[2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 10 marks]
(a) TRUE. Let the angles of triangle ABC be a, b, c. By considering the angle sum in triangle BCE and
triangle BCF, we can deduce that HBC = 90 c and HCB = 90 b.
A
F
O
H
C
If O and H are the same point, then AH = BH = CH and this means that triangle BCH is isosceles.
Hence, HBC = HCB from which it follows that 90 c = 90 b and b = c. We can use the
same argument to prove that a = b, so all angles of triangle ABC are equal. Therefore, triangle
ABC is equilateral.
(b) FALSE. Remember that a line in spherical geometry is represented by a great circle in other
words, a circle on the sphere whose centre coincides with the centre of the sphere. Any two distinct
great circles on the sphere intersect exactly twice. So in spherical geometry, given a line `, there
exist no lines which are parallel to `.
(c) TRUE. Recall that every isometry is the composition of at most three reflections. Since a glide
reflection is an example of an opposite isometry, it must be the case that its the composition of
exactly one or three reflections. A glide reflection which is not a reflection clearly cannot be the
composition of exactly one reflection. Therefore, it can be expressed as the composition of three
212
(d) FALSE. There are actually four graphs without loops or multiple edges with three vertices,
as shown in the diagram below.
(e) FALSE. If there is a loner at the party who knows no other people, then no one at the party can
know the loner. In particular, no one at the party can know everybody else at the party. So its
impossible for someone to know 99 other people.
213
2.
(a) Use the hockey theorem to prove that if ABCD is a cyclic quadrilateral, then
ABC + CDA = 180
and
BCD + DAB = 180 .
(b) Let D, E, F be points on the sides BC, CA, AB of triangle ABC, respectively. Prove that the
circumcircles of triangles AEF, BFD and CDE intersect at a point.
Hint: Let the circumcircle of triangles BFD and CDE meet at the points D and P and prove that
the quadrilateral AEPF is cyclic.
[3 + 3 = 6 marks]
(a) If we draw in the diagonals AC and BD, the hockey theorem tells us that there are equal angles
galore. For example, we can label ACB = ADB = w, BDC = BAC = x, CAD =
CBD = y and DBA = DCA = z. You can go crazy labelling equal angles like this whenever
there is a cyclic quadrilateral somewhere in your geometry diagram.
wx
C
w
y
x
y
B
Now were going to add up all of the angles in triangle ABC and the answer should be 180 .
CAB + ABC + BCa = 180

We can replace all of these confusing angles with ws, xs, ys and zs in the following way.
x + (y + z) + w = 180
This equation is, of course, the same thing as w + x + y + z = 180 . All we have to do now is
recognise that ABC = y + z and CDA = w + x, so that
ABC + CDA = (y + z) + (w + x ) = 180 .

You could also have chosen to recognise that BCD = w + z and DAB = x + y, so that
BCD + DAB = (w + z) + ( x + y) = 180 .

(b) Lets do as the hint suggests and let the circumcircle of triangles BFD and CDE meet at the points
D and P. Our goal is to prove that the quadrilateral AEPF is cyclic.
214
D
F
P
x
Lets remove the two circles from the diagram since they are obfuscating what should be quite
simple and just remember that the quadrilaterals BFPD and CDPE are cyclic. Our goal is to
show that the quadrilateral AEPF is also cyclic and we essentially know only two ways to do this.
Either we show that it has opposite angles which add to 180 or we show that it obeys the hockey
theorem. For this particular problem, the former is the right way to go.
So lets start by labelling PEA = x. The natural thing to do, of course, is label the angle next
door PEC = 180 x. Now we can use the fact that the quadrilateral CDPE is cyclic to label
the opposite angle PDC = x. And again the natural thing to do is label the angle next door
PDB = 180 x. Now we can use the fact that the quadrilateral BFPD is cyclic to label the
opposite angle PFB = x. And once again the natural thing to do is label the angle next door
PFA = 180 x. But just hold on a second we now know that
PEA + PFA = x + (180 x ) = 180 .

Therefore, the quadrilateral AEPF is indeed cyclic.
215
3.
ISOMETRY
DIRECT OR OPPOSITE
FIXED POINTS
translation
rotation
reflection
glide reflection
TAC denote the translation which takes A to C;
which takes B to C;
R D denote a counterclockwise rotation by 90 about D; and
M AD denote the reflection in the line AD.
Identify the composition TAC GBC R D M AD .
[2 + 3 = 5 marks]
(a) The completed table is as follows.

ISOMETRY
DIRECT OR OPPOSITE
FIXED POINTS
translation
DIRECT
NO
rotation
DIRECT
YES
reflection
OPPOSITE
YES
glide reflection
OPPOSITE
NO
(b) With these sorts of problems, its useful to draw the rectangle on a grid of squares. Its also useful
to keep in mind the table above and the fact that it applies to transformations which are not the
identity. In other words, the identity is a special case of an isometry which doesnt fit into the
table.
F
O
G
A
216
First, we note that TAC GBC R D M AD must be a direct isometry, because its the composition
of two direct isometries and two opposite isometries. So we know that it is either the identity, a
translation or a rotation, and to determine which of these it is, well calculate TAC GBC R D M AD
for a few points P. First, lets consider what happens to the point A. Its easy to check that
M AD ( A) = A, R D ( A) = C, GBC (C ) = E, and TAC ( E) = F in other words, TAC GBC R D
M AD ( A) = F.
Now, lets consider what happens to the point B. Its easy to check that M AD ( B) = G, R D ( G ) = B,
GBC ( B) = C, and TAC (C ) = H in other words, TAC GBC R D M AD ( B) = H.
Now, lets consider what happens to the point C. Its easy to check that M AD (C ) = I, R D ( I ) = A,
GBC ( A) = J, and TAC ( J ) = K in other words, TAC GBC R D M AD (C ) = K.
At this stage, we can be sure that the composition TAC GBC R D M AD cannot be the identity or
a translation. So its a rotation and we can try to guess where its centre is. Note that the centre of
rotation must lie on the perpendicular bisector of AF as well as the perpendicular bisector of CH,
so it appears that the centre of rotation is at the point O labelled in the diagram.
Note that AOF = BOH = COK = 90 and we have the equations AO = FO, BO = HO,
CO = KO. This means that the composition TAC GBC R D M AD agrees with a rotation by 90
clockwise about O for the vertices of triangle ABC. It follows that the composition TAC GBC
R D M AD is equal to a rotation by 90 clockwise about O.
217
4.
a
b
c
d
e
f
e
d
*
b
*
c
d
f
*
*
*
a
f
e
*
*
*
b
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
e
*
*
*
b
*
*
*
(c) Draw a subset of the Euclidean plane whose symmetry group is isomorphic to G. Does there exist
a finite set of points in the Euclidean plane whose symmetry group is isomorphic to G? If so, draw
an example which uses the minimum number of points. If not, briefly explain why such a set does
not exist.
[2 + 2 + 2 = 6 marks]
(a) If x is the identity of G, then it is the only element of the group which satisfies e x = e. However,
we can read from the Cayley table that e e = e so it follows that e is the identity of G. We may
now label a e = a and, in fact, we can label all entries in the row and column labelled by e. The
remainder of the Cayley table for G can be filled out using the sudoku property and the result is
as follows.
a
b
c
d
e
f
e
d
f
b
a
c
d
f
e
c
b
a
f
e
d
a
c
b
b
c
a
f
d
e
a
b
c
d
e
f
c
a
b
e
f
d
(b) The group G is isomorphic to the group C6 , which consists of the rotational symmetries of a regular
hexagon. Therefore, we can label the elements of C6 as follows.
We may now write out the Cayley table for C6 .
218

R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
I
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
I
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
I
R2
R3
R4
R5
I
R1
R3
R4
R5
I
R1
R2
R4
R5
I
R1
R2
R3
R5
I
R1
R2
R3
R4

F ( a ) = R3
F ( b ) = R1
F ( c ) = R5
F ( d ) = R4
F (e) = I
F ( f ) = R2 .
This is certainly not the only possible isomorphism. To find one, you can use the fact that the
identity in G must correspond to the identity in C6 . Furthermore, in G the only non-identity
element which squares to give the identity is a while in C6 the only non-identity element which
squares to give the identity is R3 . Hence, we can deduce that any isomorphism must take a to R3 .
After youve obtained some facts like this, the problem can be finished with a little trial and error.
(c) Usually, we describe C6 as the symmetry group of a decorated regular hexagon as shown below
left. The decorated regular hexagon is an infinite set of points in the plane, but we can consider
just the end points of the six segments which make up the regular hexagon as shown below right.
This gives a set of twelve points whose symmetry group is also C6 . In fact, this is the smallest set
of points in the Euclidean plane whose symmetry group is C6 .
219
5.
(b) Find a sequence of two or more distinct capital letters from the set {N, O, R, M} which can be
written in a repeating pattern to form a frieze pattern whose HVRG symbol is R.
[1 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 2 = 7 marks]
(a) HVRG
(b) NONONONONO
(c) 111
A point which is the centre of a rotational symmetry of order 1, a point which 1 mirror passes
through, and a point where 1 proper glide axis
passes through are labelled in the diagram on
the right in red, green and blue, respectively.
(d) 101
(e) If we denote the rotation by 180 by R and the glide reflection in a horizontal axis by G, then the
symmetry group of the frieze pattern must also contain R G. This composition is an opposite
isometry and its easy to see that it must be a reflection in a vertical mirror. One way to see this
is to consider what happens to the picture of a left footprint walking right, above the horizontal
axis. After applying the glide reflection G, this becomes a right footprint walking right, below the
horizontal axis. And then after applying R, this becomes a right footprint walking left above the
horizontal axis. The only way to start with a left footprint walking right and end up with a right
footprint walking left is via a reflection in a vertical mirror.
220
is a triangle or a pentagon and that four faces meet at every vertex. Furthermore, every triangular
face shares an edge with three pentagonal faces, while every pentagonal face shares an edge with five
triangular faces.
(b) Let T be the number of triangular faces and P be the number of pentagonal faces of the polyhedron.
Use the handshaking lemma applied to the dual of the polyhedron to prove that E = 23 T + 52 P.
(c) Prove the equation 3T = 5P.
values of T and P.
(e) Draw an example of a planar graph corresponding to such a polyhedron. Draw an example of
such a polyhedron.
[1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 1 = 6 marks]
(a) Since four faces meet at every vertex, every vertex of the polyhedron has degree four. Therefore,
the sum of the degrees is simply 4V and we obtain the equation 4V = 2E.
(b) Since there are T triangular faces and P pentagonal faces, the sum of the numbers of edges around
each face is 3T + 5P and we obtain the equation 3T + 5P = 2E or equivalently,
E=
5
3
T + P.
2
2
(c) The trick here is to count the number of times a triangular face shares an edge with a pentagonal
face. This happens three times for each triangular face in other words, the answer is 3T. Arguing
in a different way, we can say that this happens five times for each pentagonal face in other
words, the answer is 5P. Of course, these are just two answers to the same question, so we must
have 3T = 5P.
(d) Since 3T = 5P, we may substitute T = 35 P into the equation from part (b) this gives us E = 5P.
Now we can use the equation from part (a) to deduce that V = 21 E = 52 P. Since every face is a
triangle or a pentagon, we also know that F = T + P or equivalently, F = 83 P. And finally, we can
substitute these expressions for V, E, F into Eulers formula to obtain
VE+F = 2
5
8
P 5P + P = 2
2
3
P = 12.
The fact that T = 53 P then leads to T = 20.

(e) Once weve worked out the values of T and P, its a simple matter to deduce that V = 30, E = 60
and F = 32. You can try to draw the corresponding planar graph and the easiest way to do this
is in a symmetric fashion, as shown on the next page on the left. You can then try to draw the
polyhedron as a three-dimensional figure and you should get something like the diagram on the
next page on the right.
221
222
Sample Final Examination
FAMILY NAME
GIVEN NAME(S)
STUDENT NUMBER
DATE
any date
START TIME
any time
FINISH TIME
three hours after the start time
EXAMINER
Norman Do
Instructions
problem.
hand and ask the invigilator for another sheet of paper.
6. The examination booklet should consist of this cover, pages 1 through 10 which contain the questions,
and pages 11 through 15 which are blank. Please inform the invigilator if your booklet is defective.
223
(a) The incentre of a triangle always lies inside the triangle. (Recall that the incentre of a triangle is
where the angle bisectors meet.)
(b) Every isometry can be expressed as the composition of four or fewer reflections.
(c) If the circumcentre of triangle ABC and the centroid of triangle ABC are the same point, then triangle ABC must be equilateral. (Recall that the circumcentre of a triangle is where the perpendicular
bisectors meet and the centroid of a triangle is where the medians meet.)
(d) In the hyperbolic plane, there exists a triangle with angles 1 , 10 and 100 .
(e) Let e be the identity in a group G. If g and h are two elements in G such that g h = e, then it is
also true that h g = e.
[2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 10 marks]
224
2. Let the incentre of triangle ABC be I and let its incircle touch the sides AB and AC at R and Q,
respectively. Let the line segment AI meet the incircle at J.
(a) Prove that the quadrilateral AQIR is cyclic.
(b) Prove that 2 JRQ = ARQ.
(c) Deduce that J is the incentre of triangle ARQ.
[2 + 6 + 2 = 10 marks]
225
3.
ISOMETRY
DIRECT OR OPPOSITE
FIXED POINTS
translation
rotation
reflection
glide reflection
GCB denote the glide reflection consisting of a reflection in the line CB followed by a translation
which takes C to B; and
MCD denote the reflection in the line CD;
RC denote a counterclockwise rotation by 90 about C; and
G AC denote the glide reflection consisting of a reflection in the line AC followed by a translation which takes A to C.
Identify the composition GCB MCD RC G AC .
(c) If X denotes the composition GCB MCD RC G AC , let n be the minimum number of reflections
whose composition is equal to X. Determine the value of n and carefully describe n reflections
whose composition is equal to X.
[2 + 4 + 4 = 10 marks]
226
4.
a
b
c
d
e
f
*
a
*
f
*
*
*
*
*
d
*
*
*
*
b
*
d
a
c
*
*
*
*
e
b
*
f
*
*
*
d
*
*
a
c
*
(b) In the lectures, we have seen two groups with six elements C6 and D3 which are not
isomorphic to each other. Prove that G is isomorphic to one of these groups by writing down the
explicit isomorphism. How many isomorphisms are there?
(c) Give a subset of the Euclidean plane whose symmetry group is isomorphic to G. Does there exist
(d) Why are the cyclic group C6 and the dihedral group D3 not isomorphic to each other?
[3 + 3 + 2 + 2 = 10 marks]
227
5.
VNVNVNVNVNVNV
(d) Write down the RMG symbol for the wallpaper pattern pictured below right. Mark clearly on the
[1 + 1 + 2 + 4 + 2 = 10 marks]
228
is a pentagon or a hexagon and that three faces meet at every vertex. Furthermore, every pentagonal
face shares an edge with five hexagonal faces, while every hexagonal face shares an edge with three
pentagonal faces and three hexagonal faces.
(a) Let P be the number of pentagonal faces and H be the number of hexagonal faces of the polyhedron.
Prove that the following equations hold.
V=
5
P + 2H
3
E=
5
P + 3H
2
(b) Prove the equation 5P = 3H.

(c) Use these equations along with anything else you know about the polyhedron to deduce the
values of P and H.
(d) Draw a planar graph corresponding to such a polyhedron and draw an example of such a
polyhedron.
(e) Cut off each vertex of the polyhedron using a plane which passes through the midpoints of the
[3 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 10 marks]
229
7.
(a) Fill in each entry of the middle column with the word orientable or non-orientable and each entry of
the right column with a number or mathematical expression for the Euler characteristic.
SURFACE
ORIENTABILITY
sphere
connect sum of g tori
connect sum of n projective planes
(b) Determine whether or not the surface corresponding to the edge word aceb1 deabd1 c1 is orientable and calculate its Euler characteristic.
(c) Identify the surface using the table above.
(d) Write down the shortest possible edge word for the surface.
(e) If the surface is homeomorphic to T # X where T represents a torus and X represents some surface,
then what is X?
[4 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 10 marks]
230
8.
(a) I would like to tile a 10 10 square with a b rectangles, where a and b are positive integers
which may or may not be equal. Determine all values of a and b for which this is possible.
(b) Use a colouring argument to prove that it is not possible to tile a 10 10 rectangle with 4 1
rectangles.
(c) Hence, deduce that it is not possible to tile a 10 10 rectangle with 4 5 rectangles.
(d) It is possible to tile a 10 10 rectangle with thirty-three 3 1 rectangles and one 1 1 square.
Determine all possible locations for the 1 1 square and prove that these are the only ones possible.
[3 + 3 + 1 + 3 = 10 marks]
231
9. Let GXY denote the glide reflection which is the composition of a reflection in the line XY followed by a
translation which takes X to Y.
(a) If ABCD is a rectangle, show that the composition GDA GCD GBC G AB is equal to the identity.
In other words, if you glide around a rectangle, then the result is the identity.
(b) If you glide around an arbitrary quadrilateral, show that the result is not necessarily the identity.
(c) Which quadrilaterals can you glide around so that the result is the identity?
[6 + 2 + 2 = 10 marks]
232
10.
(a) Determine all surfaces which can be obtained by gluing the sides of a quadrilateral in pairs.
(b) Determine all surfaces which can be obtained by gluing the sides of a hexagon in pairs.
[6 + 4 = 10 marks]
233
Final Examination
FAMILY NAME
GIVEN NAME(S)
STUDENT NUMBER
DATE
Wednesday 2 June, 2010
START TIME
2:00 pm
FINISH TIME
5:00 pm
EXAMINER
Norman Do
ASSOCIATE EXAMINER
Jacques Hurtubise
Instructions
problem.
hand and ask the invigilator for another sheet of paper.
6. The examination booklet should consist of this cover, pages 1 through 9 which contain the questions,
and pages 10 through 15 which are blank. Please inform the invigilator if your booklet is defective.
234
Final Examination
(a) The orthocentre of a triangle always lies inside the triangle. (Recall that the orthocentre of a
triangle is where the altitudes meet.)
(b) In the hyperbolic plane, given a line ` and a point P not on `, there exist infinitely many lines
through P which are parallel to `.
(c) If the circumcentre of triangle ABC and the incentre of triangle ABC are the same point, then triangle ABC must be equilateral. (Recall that the circumcentre of a triangle is where the perpendicular
bisectors meet and the incentre of a triangle is where the angle bisectors meet.)
(d) Suppose that the earth is a perfect sphere. It is possible to start at a town A, walk in a straight line
to the town B, turn left 135 , walk in a straight line to the town C, turn left 135 , walk in a straight
line to the town A, turn left 135 and be facing the town B again.
[3 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 12 marks]
235
Final Examination
2. Let AD, BE, CF be the altitudes of an acute triangle ABC. Extend AD until it meets the circumcircle of
triangle ABC at X, as shown in the diagram below.
A
E
F
H
B
X
(a) If H is the orthocentre of triangle ABC, prove that BHD = BCA.
(b) Prove that triangle BHD is congruent to triangle BXD.
(c) Prove that triangle BHC is congruent to triangle BXC.
(d) Use the previous part to explain why the circumradius of triangle HBC is equal to the circumradius
of triangle ABC.
(e) Find two other triangles in the diagram which have the same circumradius as triangle ABC.
[3 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 12 marks]
236
3.
Final Examination
(a) Fill in each entry of the table below with one or more of the letters T, R, M, G where T denotes a
translation (which is not the identity), R denotes a rotation (which is not the identity), M denotes
a reflection and G denotes a glide reflection. You should ignore the case when the composition of
two isometries is the identity.
For example, the entry which is already filled in corresponds to the fact that a translation followed
by a reflection can be a reflection or a glide reflection.
translation
rotation
reflection
glide reflection
translation
rotation
reflection
RG
glide reflection
MBD denote the reflection in the line BD;
RC denote a counterclockwise rotation by 90 about C;
which takes B to C; and
TAB denote the translation which takes A to B.
Identify the composition MBD RC GBC TAB .
(c) If X denotes the composition MBD RC GBC TAB , let n be the minimum number of reflections
whose composition is equal to X. Determine the value of n and carefully describe n reflections
whose composition is equal to X.
(d) Prove whether or not it is possible to write X as the composition of two glide reflections which are
not reflections.
[4 + 4 + 2 + 2 = 12 marks]
237
4.
Final Examination
a
b
c
d
e
f
*
a
*
f
*
*
*
*
*
d
*
*
*
*
b
*
d
a
c
*
*
*
*
e
b
*
f
*
*
*
d
*
*
a
c
*
(b) In the lectures, we have seen two groups with six elements C6 and D3 which are not
isomorphic to each other. Prove that G is isomorphic to one of these groups by writing down an
explicit isomorphism. How many isomorphisms are there?
(c) Give a subset of the Euclidean plane whose symmetry group is isomorphic to G. Does there exist
(d) Why are the cyclic group C6 and the dihedral group D3 not isomorphic to each other?
[3 + 3 + 2 + 2 = 10 marks]
238
5.
Final Examination
(b) Find a sequence of one or more capital letters from the set {H, V, R, G} which can be written in a
repeating pattern to form a frieze pattern whose HVRG symbol is the sequence itself.
(e) Prove that if the symmetry group of a frieze pattern contains a glide reflection and a reflection in a
[2 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 3 = 12 marks]
239
Final Examination
a triangle or a quadrilateral and that three faces meet at every vertex. Furthermore, every triangular
face shares an edge with three quadrilateral faces, while every quadrilateral face shares an edge with
two triangular faces and two quadrilateral faces.
(a) Let T be the number of triangular faces and Q be the number of quadrilateral faces of the polyhedron. Prove that the following equations hold.
3V = 2E
E=
3
T + 2Q
2
(b) Prove the equation 3T = 2Q.

(c) Use these equations along with anything else you know about the polyhedron to deduce the
values of T and Q.
(d) Draw a planar graph corresponding to such a polyhedron and draw an example of such a
polyhedron.
(e) Suppose that we mark two points on each edge of the polyhedron, one-third and two-thirds of the
way along the edge. Cut off each vertex of the polyhedron using a plane which passes through the
marked points of the three edges which meet at that vertex and which are closer to that vertex.
This process often called truncation produces a convex polyhedron from a convex polyhedron.
How many vertices, edges and faces does this new polyhedron have? How many triangular faces
and hexagonal faces does this new polyhedron have?
[2 + 1 + 4 + 2 + 3 = 12 marks]
240
7.
Final Examination
(a) Fill in each entry of the middle column with the word orientable or non-orientable and each entry of
the right column with a number or mathematical expression for the Euler characteristic.
SURFACE
ORIENTABILITY
sphere
connect sum of g tori
connect sum of n projective planes
(b) The diagram below shows four squares which give rise to a surface after gluing the edges together
as indicated. Show that an edge word for this surface is ac1 e1 dab1 cdbe.
d
(c) Determine whether or not the surface corresponding to the edge word ac1 e1 dab1 cdbe is orientable and calculate its Euler characteristic.
(d) Identify the surface using the table above.
(e) Write down the shortest possible edge word for the surface.
(f) If the surface is homeomorphic to T # X where T represents a torus and X represents some surface,
then what is X?
[3 + 2 + 4 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 15 marks]
241
8.
Final Examination
(a) I would like to tile a 4 7 rectangle with a b rectangles, where a and b are positive integers
which may or may not be equal. Write down all values of a and b for which this is possible.
(b) Prove that it is not possible to tile a 4 7 rectangle with 3 1 rectangles.
(c) Prove that it is not possible to tile a 4 7 rectangle with 2 2 squares.
(d) It is possible to tile a 4 7 rectangle with nine 3 1 rectangles and one 1 1 square. Determine
all possible locations for the 1 1 square and prove that these are the only ones possible.
(e) What is the maximum area of a 4 7 rectangle that can be tiled with isosceles right-angled triangles
whose hypotenuses have length 2?
[4 + 2 + 2 + 5 + 2 = 15 marks]
242
Final Examination
9. You may only receive marks for one of the following four questions. Furthermore, you will not
receive any marks unless you have seriously attempted every other question on this examination.
Let OABC and OPQR be two squares with vertices labelled counterclockwise and which have a
common vertex O. Let M and N be the centres of the two squares and let K and L be the midpoints of
AR and CP. Prove that the quadrilateral KMLN is a square.
OR
Prove that in any finite symmetry group, either every isometry is direct or there is an equal number of
direct and opposite isometries.
OR
Show that at any party with nine people, there exist four who all know each other or three who all
dont know each other.
OR
Prove the BolyaiGerwien theorem, which asserts that two polygons are scissors congruent if and only
if they have the same area.
[BONUS]
243

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MATH 348 TOPICS IN GEOMETRY

Mathematics and Statistics

MATH 348 TOPICS IN GEOMETRY

Triangles and Circles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Symmetry and Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Symmetry in the Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Crystals, Friezes and Wallpapers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

POLYHEDRA, GRAPHS AND SURFACES

From Polyhedra to Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Platonic Solids and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Surfaces and Topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Classification of Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

TILING AND DISSECTION

Tiling Rectangles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Scissors Congruence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

ASSIGNMENTS, TESTS AND EXAMINATIONS

MATH 348 TOPICS IN GEOMETRY

Sample Final Examination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

MATH 348 Topics in Geometry

Burnside Hall 1B24

Assignments and Evaluation

Polyhedra, Graphs and Surfaces

Tiling and Dissection

1.1. Euclids Elements

Reductionism for Dummies

Wheres the Geometry?

1.1. Euclids Elements

Axioms and Common Notions

1.1. Euclids Elements

The First Few Propositions

1.1. Euclids Elements

Proof. Let AB be the given line segment.

1.1. Euclids Elements

1.1. Euclids Elements

Proof. Let the isosceles triangle be ABC, where AB = AC.

1.1. Euclids Elements

Proof. Let ABC be the right-angled triangle with BAC = 90 .

1.1. Euclids Elements

1.1. Euclids Elements

1.1. Euclids Elements

The Problem with Reductionism

1.1. Euclids Elements

be wondering, if we dont even know whether or not

1.2. Triangles and Circles

Warming Up with Parallel Lines

Basic Facts about Triangles

b h, where b denotes the length of the base and h denotes the

1.2. Triangles and Circles

Congruence and Similarity

1.2. Triangles and Circles

are equal, then the two

are equal and ABC = XYZ,

1.2. Triangles and Circles

Pythagoras Theorem (Reprise)

1.2. Triangles and Circles

Basic Facts about Circles

A chord is a line segment which joins two points

An arc of a circle is the part of the circumference

BAC + ACB + CBA = 180

1.2. Triangles and Circles

BAC + ACB + CBA = 180

1.2. Triangles and Circles

The Hockey Theorem

1.2. Triangles and Circles