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I'm struggling with the following elementary problem from Euclidean Geometry which is the last piece within a certain framework of a proof that congruent alternate interior angles implies parallel lines. I am trying to do this all without any notion of angle measure or the ability to sum angles, simply the following axiom: Suppose that point $D$ is interior to $\angle ABC$, then $\angle ABC \not \cong \angle DBC$. By "interior", I mean that $D$ is on the same side of line $BC$ as point $A$ (segment $\overline{AD}$ does not intersect line $BC$) and likewise, that $D$ is on the same side of line $AB$ as point $C$.

The missing piece of the proof of the above is the following very intuitive result: Suppose points $C$ and $D$ lie on the same side of line $AB$, then if segment $\overline{BD}$ meets ray $\overrightarrow{AC}$ and segment $\overline{BC}$ meets ray $\overrightarrow{AD}$, then $\overrightarrow{AC}=\overrightarrow{AD}$. In other words, if $D$ and $B$ are on opposite sides of line $AC$, then $C$ and $B$ are on the same side of line $AD$ unless $\overrightarrow{AC}=\overrightarrow{AD}$. This is equivalent to saying that of three rays all emanating from the same point, say $\overrightarrow{AB},\overrightarrow{AC},\overrightarrow{AD}$, one of the three points $B,C,D$ is interior to the angle formed by the other two rays.

This would be very easy with an angle measure version of the axiom quoted above since we could then use a simple triangle inequality argument, but I'd like to see if this is possible without appealing to angle measure. Any help would be appreciated.

  • If you are trying to do this by Euclid's axioms, it cannot be done. There are various shortcomings of the axiomatic system Euclid selected, which have been identified and rectified since. On of those was the need for an axiom to the effect that if two lines crossed, then there had to a be a point of intersection. Probably the most famous form is Pasch's axiom: if a line intersects one side of a triangle, it must also intersect a second side. – Paul Sinclair Jul 28 '23 at 21:48

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