Fundamental Concepts in Geometry

Geometry

Derived from Greek geo meaning earth and metry meaning

measurement. Essentially, geometry was originally used to
measure distance, area, and volume.

Figure 1. Source http://www.mathopenref.com/plane/html

Point

A precise location in space.

Points are dimensionless, meaning they have no length, width,
or depth.
Points are often represented as a dot and labelled using capital
letters.

http://www.mathopenref.com/ray.html
Ray

A portion of a line which starts at a point and extends in a

particular direction to infinity.

http://www.mathopenref.com/ray.html

Line

A geometrical object that is straight, infinitely long in both

directions and infinitely thin.

http://www.mathopenref.com/line.html
Collinear

A set of points that lie in a straight line. Points are collinear if,
and only if, they exist in the same line.
http://www.mathopenref.com/collinear.html

Coplanar

Points are coplanar if, and only if, they exist in the same plane.
A minimum of 3 points are required to define a plane.
http://www.mathopenref.com/coplanar.html

Angle

A shape, formed by two lines, line segments, or rays diverging

from a common point (the vertex).

http://www.mathopenref.com/angle.html
Parallel Lines

Lines are parallel if they lie in the same plane, and are the
same distance apart over their entire length.
http://www.mathopenref.com/parallel.html

Coordinate
Geometry

A system of geometry where the position of points:

on a plane are described using an ordered pair denoted

(x, y); and
on a solid are described using an ordered triplet
denoted (x, y, z).

Did you notice that the coordinate order x, y, z is alphabetical?

Distance Between
Points

Let d represent the distance between point A(x1, y1) and point
B(x2, y2). Then d = sqrt[(x2-x1)2 +(y2-y1)2]

Polygon

A two dimensional shape enclosed by line segments.

Examples of non-polygons include: points, rays, lines, ovals,
circles, and regions that are not completely enclosed by line
segments.

Regular polygons have equal side lengths. Examples include

an equilateral triangle, a square, a pentagon, a hexagon, etc.