Last updated 7may11.
\begin{document} \section{Introduction}
This lesson introduces you to the
Axiomatic Method. Among other reasons,
the logical rigor involved in this approach to geometry, and human knowledge
in general, is why it has been taught to school children for 2.3
millenia. Indeed,
Abraham Lincoln studied Euclid by firelight in that log cabin in Kentucky.
See also Chapter 1 of Hvidsten's textbook.
Some students appreciate a concise overview of the material
to be covered. The document linked here is of this nature. You should not
expect to understand each paragraph on the first reading. It will be elaborated
over the first half of the course. You should re-read it periodically to see
how much you currently understand of the heart of the matter.
\section{Mathematical Writing}
For this course you will need to master a beginner's portion of the universal
mathematical typesetting language, LaTeX. So you
may want to go a bit further and consider writing an essay in LaTeX.
The lessons on this website which are written in MathML are in the
HTML format. That means, if you want to see how a mathematical formula
is conded, you can just look at the source of the web page. Consult the
Advice pages for more detail.
But it the page is in the PDF format you cannot do this as easily.
So here is postulates.tex ,
which is the source code to the document.
Axiomatic Sytems for Geometry
\textit{ $\C$ 2010, Prof. George K. Francis, Mathematics Department, University of Illinois}\begin{document} \section{Introduction}
This lesson introduces you to the
Axiomatic Method. Among other reasons,
the logical rigor involved in this approach to geometry, and human knowledge
in general, is why it has been taught to school children for 2.3
millenia. Indeed,
Abraham Lincoln studied Euclid by firelight in that log cabin in Kentucky.
See also Chapter 1 of Hvidsten's textbook.
Some students appreciate a concise overview of the material
to be covered. The document linked here is of this nature. You should not
expect to understand each paragraph on the first reading. It will be elaborated
over the first half of the course. You should re-read it periodically to see
how much you currently understand of the heart of the matter.
\section{Mathematical Writing}
For this course you will need to master a beginner's portion of the universal
mathematical typesetting language, LaTeX. So you
may want to go a bit further and consider writing an essay in LaTeX.
The lessons on this website which are written in MathML are in the
HTML format. That means, if you want to see how a mathematical formula
is conded, you can just look at the source of the web page. Consult the
Advice pages for more detail.
But it the page is in the PDF format you cannot do this as easily.
So here is postulates.tex ,
which is the source code to the document.