This is a book in the tradition of Euclidean synthetic geometry written by
one of the twentieth century's great mathematicians. The original audience
was pre-college teachers, but it is useful as well to gifted high school
students and college students, in particular, to mathematics majors
interested in geometry from a more advanced standpoint.
The text starts where Euclid starts, and covers all the basics of plane
Euclidean geometry. But this text does much more. It is at once pleasingly
classic and surprisingly modern. The problems (more than 450 of them) are
well-suited to exploration using the modern tools of dynamic geometry
software. For this reason, the present edition includes a CD of dynamic
solutions to select problems, created using Texas Instruments'
TI-Nspire™ Learning Software. The TI-Nspire™ documents demonstrate
connections among problems and—through the free trial software included
on the CD—will allow the reader to explore and interact with Hadamard's
Geometry in new ways. The material also includes introductions to several
advanced topics. The exposition is spare, giving only the minimal
background needed for a student to explore these topics. Much of the value
of the book lies in the problems, whose solutions open worlds to the
engaged reader.
And so this book is in the Socratic tradition, as well as the Euclidean,
in that it demands of the reader both engagement and interaction. A
forthcoming companion volume that includes solutions, extensions, and
classroom activities related to the problems can only begin to open the
treasures offered by this work. We are just fortunate that one of the
greatest mathematical minds of recent times has made this effort to show
to readers some of the opportunities that the intellectual tradition of
Euclidean geometry has to offer.
Readership
Undergraduate students and professors interested in Euclidean
geometry.
