Questions tagged [geometry]

For questions about geometric shapes, congruences, similarities, transformations, as well as the properties of classes of figures, points, lines, and angles.

Geometry is one of the classical disciplines of math. It is derived from two Latin words, "geo" + "metron" meaning earth & measurement. Thus it is concerned with the properties and relations of points, lines, surfaces, solids, and higher dimensional analogs. Since its earliest days, geometry has served as a practical guide for measuring lengths, areas, and volumes, and geometry is still used for this purpose today. Geometry is important because the world is made up of different shapes and spaces.

Geometry has applications to many fields, including art, architecture, physics, as well as to other branches of mathematics.

Sub-fields of contemporary geometry:

$1.\quad$ Algebraic geometry – is a branch of geometry studying zeroes of multivariate polynomials. It includes the linear and polynomial algebraic equations used for finding these sets of zeros. The applications of algebraic geometry include cryptography, string theory, etc.

$2.\quad$ Discrete geometry – is concerned with the relative positions of simple geometric objects, such as points, lines, triangles, circles etc.

$3.\quad$ Differential geometry – uses techniques of algebra and calculus for problem-solving. The applications of differential geometry include general relativity in physics, etc.

$4.\quad$ Euclidean geometry – The study of plane and solid figures on the basis of axioms and theorems including points, lines, planes, angles, congruence, similarity, solid figures. It has a wide range of applications in computer science, modern mathematics problem solving, crystallography etc.

$5.\quad$ Convex geometry – includes convex shapes in Euclidean space using techniques of real analysis. It has application in optimization and functional analysis in number theory.

$6.\quad$ Topology – is concerned with properties of space under continuous mapping. Its application includes consideration of compactness, completeness, continuity, filters, function spaces, grills, clusters and bunches, hyperspace topologies, initial and final structures, metric spaces, metrization, nets, proximal continuity, proximity spaces, separation axioms, and uniform spaces.

$7.\quad$ Plane geometry – This wing of geometry deals with flat shapes which can be drawn on a piece of paper. These include lines, circles & triangles of two dimensions.

$8.\quad$ Solid geometry – It deals with $3$-dimensional objects like cubes, prisms, cylinders & spheres.

Reference:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometry

50021 questions
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What is the difference between a variety and a manifold?

I hear people use these words relatively interchangeably. I'd believe that any differentiable manifold can also be made into a variety (which data, if I understand correctly, implicitly includes an ambient space?), but it's unclear to me whether…
33
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6 answers

Pythagorean Theorem Proof Without Words (request for words)

I was intrigued by a book I saw called Proofs without Words. So I bought it, and discovered that the entire book doesn't have any words in it. I figured at least it would have some words explaining the pictures or something to help understand the…
Jeff
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32
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7 answers

How does the wheel paradox work?

I keep looking at this picture and its driving me crazy. How can the smaller circle travel the same distance when its circumference is less than the entire wheel?
32
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3 answers

Is there more than one way to divide the "L"-shaped tromino into four congruent, connected pieces?

Recently my sister-in-law, who is training to become a high school mathematics teacher, asked me the following question: Consider the following polygon constructed by adjoining three squares of equal area. (Aka, a "tromino".) Determine a method of…
joshphysics
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Intuitive reasons for why approximating arclength with lines is good, but approximating surface area with polygons fails?

One common definition of arclength is to just define it as a supremum of the set of lengths obtained by approximating your curve as a union of line segments (I was asked in the comments for a more precise definition; see…
user147556
30
votes
2 answers

Optimal yarn balls

Winding yarn into a ball suggests some mathematical questions: Under some natural model, what paths should the yarn follow to achieve the most dense ball? One model is that used by Henryk Gerlach and Heiko von der Mosel in their paper "On…
30
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2 answers

Name of this famous question?

I think that this question is well known but I cannot remember its name, and now I am interested in it and wanted to look it up, but cannot find anything just based on a description. If anyone knows the name or can find it (or anything similar),…
29
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9 answers

Equation of a rectangle

I need to graph a rectangle on the Cartesian coordinate system. Is there an equation for a rectangle? I can't find it anywhere.
Cobold
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29
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6 answers

How to simplify the calculations of reflecting a ray about an ellipse

I wrote the script that made these images several days ago, the segments each depict a ray of light, as the light hits the boundary of the ellipse, it is reflected by the ellipse according to the laws of reflection, and the reflected ray of…
27
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3 answers

Is there a surface on which a hexagon can have all right angles?

So I was watching a video that features astronomer and topologist Cliff Stoll talking about how figures that aren't quadrilaterals can have all their angles equal 90 degrees on different surfaces. For example, on a sphere, you can create a triangle…
27
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3 answers

Circular pizza sharing

Pizza strategy game Two friends A, B want to share a (circular) pizza, by playing a game. A does a (straight line) cut B also does a cut A does another cut and B does the last cut. Now they alternate turns picking one slice at a time until last,…
Samuel
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26
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7 answers

How do I calculate a dihedral angle given Cartesian coordinates?

I have the $(x, y, z)$ coordinates for four points in space (atoms). How do I calculate the dihedral angle ($\phi$ in the below pictures from WP)? I'm somewhat hazy on my math, and am trying to implement some function for this in Python, so a…
Nick T
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25
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3 answers

Which tessellation of the sphere yields a constant density of vertices?

One way to tessellate a 3D sphere is by iterated subdivision of an icosahedron. I am wondering whether this method gives a homogeneous surface density of vertices. To the eye, it seems to do so, and logic indicates that too (each face has the same…
F'x
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25
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3 answers

How many circles are needed to cover a rectangle?

TRUE OR FALSE Suppose that a rectangle in $R^{2}$ can be covered by (allowing overlaps) $25$ discs of radius $1$, then it can also be covered by $101$ discs of radius $0.5$. Of course, though it is a true or false question, I would like the logic on…
user14082
24
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2 answers

Find angle in degrees from one point to another in 2D space?

Given Point A and Point B in 2D space, how can I find the angle Point B is from Point A? 0° can be any direction; it doesn't matter. For example, Point A is at (0, 10) and Point B is at (10, 20). The angle is 45° in this example (assuming 0° is up).
Keavon
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