Abstract
THERE are several excellent treatises dealing exhaustively with modern ideas of geometry and analysis, but the bulk and difficulty of these works repel those who are not specialists. The University of Toronto is publishing a series of “Mathematical Expositions”, which will present topics in a readable fashion, with particular attention to showing how modern theories of mathematics arise naturally from considerations well known to elementary students. The first volume, Prof. Robinson's “The Foundations of Geometry”, carries out this programme so far as it concerns the more usual kinds of geometry, leaving non-Euclidean geometry to be dealt with in a later volume. Part I considers the axiomatic foundation of projective geometry and of Euclidean geometry, and shows the relation between these. Part II deals with the more difficult questions of number, order and continuity. Those with a good knowledge of school geometry should find the book very helpful as a bridge between the old domains and the new.
The Foundations of Geometry
By Prof. Gilbert de B. Robinson. (Mathematical Expositions, No. 1.) Pp. xi + 167. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1940.) 2 dollars.
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The Foundations of Geometry. Nature 149, 125 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/149125c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/149125c0