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11 votes
3 answers
557 views

Was the small Desargues Theorem known to ancient Greeks?

My question concerns the classical Desargues Theorem and its simplest version The small Desargues Theorem: Let $A$, $B$, $C$ be three distinct parallel lines and $a,a'\in A$, $b,b'\in B$, $c,c'\in C$,...
Taras Banakh's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
212 views

Another implication of the Affine Desargues Axiom

Definition 1. An affine plane is a pair $(X,\mathcal L)$ consisting of a set $X$ and a family $\mathcal L$ of subsets of $X$ called lines which satisfy the following axioms: Any distinct points $x,y\...
Taras Banakh's user avatar
23 votes
3 answers
2k views

Why do all incidence theorems follow from Pappus' theorem?

In Hilbert and Cohn-Vossen's ``Geometry and the Imagination," they state in the last paragraph of Chapter 20 that "Any theorems concerned solely with incidence relations in the [Euclidean projective]...
aaron's user avatar
  • 418
6 votes
1 answer
295 views

Does any real projective plane incidence theorem follow from axioms?

Is it known whether any projective geometry statement that holds true in the real projective plane (equivalently, can be deduced from Hilbert axioms) follows from the standard projective axiomatics? ...
R. Matveev's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
169 views

theories where angles exist without a metric

The underlying basic question, which I'm sure I'm not the first to ask, is what are the possible exotic/nonintuitive models of Euclid's axioms/postulates, outside the one where "lines" are interpreted ...
Mircea's user avatar
  • 2,041
5 votes
0 answers
119 views

What (if anything) is the connection between the Feit-Higman Theorem and the regular plane tilings?

Here are two facts that are superficially similar. Tiling Theorem: The only regular tilings of $\mathbb{R}^2$ are achieved by triangles, squares, and hexagons. Feit-Higman Theorem: The only finite ...
GMB's user avatar
  • 1,389
2 votes
0 answers
281 views

Axiomatization of the incidence geometry of the Euclidean plane

There are several well-known axiomatizations of Euclidean plane geometry, the language of which is usually considered to include at least the relations of incidence (point-line, point-segment, or ...
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