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Neutral Geometry
Dedekind Cuts. Let
be a line
in a linear ordered
geometry
and let
be two subsets
on
. A point
is
said to be between
and
if for any pair of points
and
,
is between
and
. Note that
necessarily
lies on
.
For example, given a ray
on a line
. If
is the
source
of
, then
is a point between
and its
opposite ray
, regardless whether the ray is defined to be
open
or closed. It is easy to see
that
is the unique point
between
and
.
Given a line
, a Dedekind cut on
is a pair of subsets
such that
and there is a unique
point
between
and
. A ray
on a line
and
its compliment
constitute a Dedekind cut on
.
If
form a Dedekind cut on
, then
and
have two additional properties:
- no point on
is strictly
between two points on
, and
- no point on
is strictly between two points on
.
Conversely, if
satisfy the above two conditions, can we say that
and
constitute a Dedekind cut? In a neutral geometry, the answer is yes.
Neutral Geometry. A neutral geometry is a linear ordered geometry satisfying
- the congruence axioms, and
- the continuity axiom:
given any line
with
such that
- no point on
is (strictly) between two points on
, and
- no point on
is (strictly) between two points on
.
and
constitute a Dedekind cut on
. In other
words, there is a unique point
between
and
.
- no point on
Properties.
- Let
be a line, satisfying (a) and (b)
above and let
. Suppose
lying on
is a ray
emanating from
. Then either
or
.
- Let
be a line, satisfying (a) and (b)
above and let
be the unique point as mentioned above. Then a
closed ray
emanating from
is either
or
.
This implies
that every Dedekind cut on a line
consists of at least one ray.
- We can similarly propose a continuity axiom on a ray as follows: given any ray
with
such that
- no point on
is strictly between two points on
, and
- no point on
is strictly between two points on
.
on
between
and
.
It turns out that the two continuity axioms are equivalent.
- no point on
- Archimedean Property Given two line segments
and
, then there is a unique natural number
and a unique point
, such that
lies on the line segment
,
does not lie on
the line segment
, and
-
.
- For any given line
and any point
, there exists a line
passing through
that is perpendicular
to
.
- Consequently, for any given line
and any point
not lying on
, there exists at leaast one line passing through
that is parallel
to
. If there is more than one line passing through
parallel to
, then there are infinitely many of these lines.
Examples.
- A Euclidean geometry is a neutral geometry satisfying the Euclid's parallel axiom: for any given line and any given point not lying on the line, there is a unique line passing through the point and parallel to the given line.
- A hyperbolic geometry (or Bolyai-Lobachevsky geometry) is a neutral geometry satisfying the hyperbolic axiom: for any given line and any given point not lying on the line, there are at least two distinct (hence infinitely many) lines passing through the point and parallel to the given line.
- In fact, one can replace the indefinite article “a” in the first letter of each of the above examples by the definite article “the”. It can be shown that any two Euclidean geometries are geometrically isomorphic (preserving incidence, order, congruence, and continuity). Similarly, any two hyperbolic geometries are isomorphic. Such geometries are said to be categorical.
- An elliptic geometry is not a neutral geometry, because pairwise distinct parallel lines do not exist.