Perspectives On Projective Geometry

Projective geometry is one of the most fundamental and at the same time most beautiful branches of geometry. It can be considered the common foundation of many other geometric disciplines like Euclidean geometry, hyperbolic and elliptic geometry or even relativistic space-time geometry. This book offers a comprehensive introduction to this fascinating field and its applications. In particular, it explains how metric concepts may be best understood in projective terms. One of the major themes that appears throughout this book is the beauty of the interplay between geometry, algebra and combinatorics. This book can especially be used as a guide that explains how geometric objects and operations may be most elegantly expressed in algebraic terms, making it a valuable resource for mathematicians, as well as for computer scientists and physicists. The book is based on the author’s experience in implementing geometric software and includes hundreds of high-quality illustrations.

Through a unique approach combining art and mathematics, Perspective and Projective Geometry introduces students to the ways that projective geometry applies to perspective art. Geometry, like mathematics as a whole, offers a useful and meaningful lens for understanding the visual world. Exploring pencil-and-paper drawings, photographs, Renaissance paintings, and GeoGebra constructions, this textbook equips students with the geometric tools for projecting a three-dimensional scene onto two dimensions. Organized as a series of exercise modules, this book teaches students through hands-on inquiry and participation. Each lesson begins with a visual puzzle that can be investigated through geometry, followed by exercises that reinforce new concepts and hone students’ analytical abilities. An electronic instructor’s manual available to teachers contains sample syllabi and advice, including suggestions for pacing and grading rubrics for art projects. Drawing vital interdisciplinary connections between art and mathematics, Perspective and Projective Geometry is ideally suited for undergraduate students interested in mathematics or computer graphics, as well as for mathematically inclined students of architecture or art. · Features computer-based GeoGebra modules and hands-on exercises · Contains ample visual examples, math and art puzzles, and proofs with real-world applications · Suitable for college students majoring in mathematics, computer science, and art · Electronic instructor’s manual (available only to teachers)

This lucid introductory text offers both an analytic and an axiomatic approach to plane projective geometry. The analytic treatment builds and expands upon students' familiarity with elementary plane analytic geometry and provides a well-motivated approach to projective geometry. Subsequent chapters explore Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry as specializations of the projective plane, revealing the existence of an infinite number of geometries, each Euclidean in nature but characterized by a different set of distance- and angle-measurement formulas. Outstanding pedagogical features include worked-through examples, introductions and summaries for each topic, and numerous theorems, proofs, and exercises that reinforce each chapter's precepts. Two helpful indexes conclude the text, along with answers to all odd-numbered exercises. In addition to its value to undergraduate students of mathematics, computer science, and secondary mathematics education, this volume provides an excellent reference for computer science professionals.

In Euclidean geometry, constructions are made with ruler and compass. Projective geometry is simpler: its constructions require only a ruler. In projective geometry one never measures anything, instead, one relates one set of points to another by a projectivity. The first two chapters of this book introduce the important concepts of the subject and provide the logical foundations. The third and fourth chapters introduce the famous theorems of Desargues and Pappus. Chapters 5 and 6 make use of projectivities on a line and plane, respectively. The next three chapters develop a self-contained account of von Staudt's approach to the theory of conics. The modern approach used in that development is exploited in Chapter 10, which deals with the simplest finite geometry that is rich enough to illustrate all the theorems nontrivially. The concluding chapters show the connections among projective, Euclidean, and analytic geometry.

We are all familiar with Euclidean geometry and with the fact that it describes our three dimensional world so well. In Euclidean geometry, the sides of objects have lengths, intersecting lines determine angles between them, and two lines are said to be parallel if they lie in the same plane and never meet. Moreover, these properties do not change when the Euclidean transformations (translation and rotation) are applied. Since Euclidean geometry describes our world so well, it is at first tempting to think that it is the only type of geometry. However, when we consider the imaging process of a camera, it becomes clear that Euclidean geometry is insufficient: Lengths and angles are no longer preserved, and parallel lines may intersect. Euclidean geometry is actually a subset of what is known as projective geometry. Projective geometry exists in any number of dimensions, just like Euclidean geometry. Projective geometry has its origins in the early Italian Renaissance, particularly in the architectural drawings of Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) and Leon Battista Alberti (1404-72), who invented the method of perspective drawing. Projective geometry deals with the relationships between geometric figures and the images, or mappings that result from projecting them onto another surface. Common examples of projections are the shadows cast by opaque objects and motion pictures displayed on a screen.First of all, projective geometry is a jewel of mathematics, one of the outstanding achievements of the nineteenth century, a century of remarkable mathematical achievements such as non-Euclidean geometry, abstract algebra, and the foundations of calculus. Projective geometry is as much a part of a general education in mathematics as differential equations and Galois theory. Moreover, projective geometry is a prerequisite for algebraic geometry, one of today's most vigorous and exciting branches of mathematics. Secondly, for more than fifty years projective geometry has been propelled in a new direction by its combinatorial connections. The challenge of describing a classical geometric structure by its parameters - properties that at first glance might seem superficial - provided much of the impetus for finite geometry, another of today's flourishing branches of mathematics.

An undergraduate textbook devoted exclusively to relationships between mathematics and art, Viewpoints is ideally suited for math-for-liberal-arts courses and mathematics courses for fine arts majors. The textbook contains a wide variety of classroom-tested activities and problems, a series of essays by contemporary artists written especially for the book, and a plethora of pedagogical and learning opportunities for instructors and students. Viewpoints focuses on two mathematical areas: perspective related to drawing man-made forms and fractal geometry related to drawing natural forms. Investigating facets of the three-dimensional world in order to understand mathematical concepts behind the art, the textbook explores art topics including comic, anamorphic, and classical art, as well as photography, while presenting such mathematical ideas as proportion, ratio, self-similarity, exponents, and logarithms. Straightforward problems and rewarding solutions empower students to make accurate, sophisticated drawings. Personal essays and short biographies by contemporary artists are interspersed between chapters and are accompanied by images of their work. These fine artists--who include mathematicians and scientists--examine how mathematics influences their art. Accessible to students of all levels, Viewpoints encourages experimentation and collaboration, and captures the essence of artistic and mathematical creation and discovery. Classroom-tested activities and problem solving Accessible problems that move beyond regular art school curriculum Multiple solutions of varying difficulty and applicability Appropriate for students of all mathematics and art levels Original and exclusive essays by contemporary artists Forthcoming: Instructor's manual (available only to teachers)

This text examines the 3 classical geometries and their relationship to general geometric structures, with particular focus on affine geometry, projective metrics, non-Euclidean geometry, and spatial geometry. 1953 edition.