Introduction to
GEOMETRY
OT
By the Same Author
CROMETRY
i a i iPreface
1 am gratetul tothe readers ofthe rat edition who have made suggestions
{orimprovement. Apert fom some minor conertons, the principal change
se a fllows
The equation connecting the curvatures of four mutually tangent els,
ov Loot atthe Deserts Cirle Thorens (p i paved along the Fines
Suggested by Mr Beecroft on pp. 91-96 of “The Ladys and Gentleman's
Diary forthe year of our Lord 1842, being the second after Bisex, de
signod prinspaly fr fe gana aa satin of Skagen a Mo
tates: comprising many useful and entertaining particulars, intresting 0
Allpertons engaged i at delightful pursuit
Fo smarty the playa teatent (pp, 79-76) was ouggsated by
ALL. Stper when he was sophomore at tne Universit’ of Toroto, For
Smarty in space, a eiferat treatment (p. 103) way siggsted by Professor
Marla Wonenburger. A new evercive on p90 snroduees che wet eonuept
So imersve dice Another hac heen inserted om p. 127 to exhibit R
KKeasnodgbek's drawings of symmetrical loxodromes.
Pages 205-20 have Deon rose so 38 clay the treatment of apouies
(ohich presren collinearity) and equlainion (which preseroe seen) The
‘ew material includes some chaleaging exercises. For the discovery of finite
{fometrics(p. 237), credit has been given fo Yon Slauat, who antepated
Fano by 36 years
Page 395 records the completion, in 1968, by G. Ringel and J. W. T.
‘Youngs of project bein by Heswood in 1990. The result i hat we a0
Seno, for every kind of surface xcept the sphar (or pane), the minimal
numberof colors that wll ufc for coloring every map on the surface.
"Ansrs ate now given for practically al the exetlpes: 2 separate booklet
ia no longer needed. One of the prtitot answer (p 453) wa kindly sup
lied by Professor P. Suir of Budapest.
HSM. CoxeterPreface to the
first edition
Forth lan hiny ony yet att Asians hove somehow" lst in
terest in ezometrs, The present book coastictes an ailempt to revitalize
this sadly neglected subject.
he tour pars coreyponl vouphly Uke fous scar of ollgs work
However moat of Pat I ci be read before Part i, and most of Part 1V
before Pat IIL The ist eleven chapters (tha is Parts Tand 1) wil pro-
Vide a course Tor students who bave soue huowindge of Dust and
Imemtoty anlgtic genmetry ut have not et made up their minds to spe-
‘Gale in mathematics or for enterprising high schoolteachers who Wisk
{Se what Is happening Just beyond tier usual wsicalum. Part TH dss
‘Sorte tountione af geometry insane projstive weometey and Byber-
folic non Euclidean geometry.” Part TV datroduces diferent geometry.
Combinatoncl topology and four-dimensional Fuclican geonety
Tn spite of the lrg mumbor af era vfernces each of the Cent 80
chapters is easonablyself-comtained: any of them can be omitted on fst
reading without spoiingone' enjoyment of the rest. For instants, Chaptes
Taser8, De and 17 woald makes gond short course There are relevant
Cheeies at the end of almost every section; the hardest of them are pro-
‘Sided with hints for their olution, (Answers to some of the exercises te
TER ihe end ofthe books Aniwers to many af the remaining exrcises
Ste provided in 4 separate booklet, availabe ftom the publisher upon re-
{Guent)The unifying thread that rune through the whole work 1s te nea
Sta poup of transformations ori a single word, symnerny
‘The castomary emphasis on analyc geometry is likely to give students
the impression that geometry is merely & part of algebra or of analyss. It
[s‘cteshing to observe thet there are come important instnoes (eich 8
the Arvand diagram described in Chapter 9) in which geometrical idea are
ineded a8 csetial tools inthe development of these other branches of
in his Erlanger Programm (Eslanuen program) o
fet that, besides pane and solid Euclidean geometry, there are many other
feouietiee lly won of atinon, Por notanse, many of Euc'sn
‘propositions belong to the wider Red of fine geometry, which i ald not