Birkhoff's axioms in the context of Grundlagen der Geometrie


Birkhoff's axioms in the context of Grundlagen der Geometrie

⭐ Core Definition: Birkhoff's axioms

In 1932, G. D. Birkhoff created a set of four postulates of Euclidean geometry in the plane, sometimes referred to as Birkhoff's axioms. These postulates are all based on basic geometry that can be confirmed experimentally with a scale and protractor. Since the postulates build upon the real numbers, the approach is similar to a model-based introduction to Euclidean geometry.

Birkhoff's axiomatic system was utilized in the secondary-school textbook by Birkhoff and Beatley.These axioms were also modified by the School Mathematics Study Group to provide a new standard for teaching high school geometry, known as SMSG axioms.A few other textbooks in the foundations of geometry use variants of Birkhoff's axioms.

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Birkhoff's axioms in the context of Hilbert's axioms

Hilbert's axioms are a set of 20 assumptions proposed by David Hilbert in 1899 in his book Grundlagen der Geometrie (tr. The Foundations of Geometry) as the foundation for a modern treatment of Euclidean geometry. Other well-known modern axiomatizations of Euclidean geometry are those of Alfred Tarski and of George Birkhoff.

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Birkhoff's axioms in the context of Tarski's axioms

Tarski's axioms are an axiom system for Euclidean geometry, specifically for that portion of Euclidean geometry that is formulable in first-order logic with identity (i.e. is formulable as an elementary theory). As such, it does not require an underlying set theory. The only primitive objects of the system are "points" and the only primitive predicates are "betweenness" (expressing the fact that a point lies on a line segment between two other points) and "congruence" (expressing the fact that the distance between two points equals the distance between two other points). The system contains infinitely many axioms.

The axiom system is due to Alfred Tarski who first presented it in 1926. Other modern axiomizations of Euclidean geometry are Hilbert's axioms (1899) and Birkhoff's axioms (1932).

View the full Wikipedia page for Tarski's axioms
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