Elementary Geometry

Rating:
Summary: Great text for high school or college
Review: I had used this text in a geometry class I took in college as a math major (class was not required, just needed hours to fill). After using this book and finishing the course, I found it to be much better than the geometry book I used in high school.

This book, like many high school texts, breaks geometry down into constructions using only a straight-edge and compass and then introduces definitions and theorems (some proved, some left to prove as exercises). The part that hooked me in was the fill-in-the-blank-step proofs that were partially completed but let the reader finish so that he or she will become familiar with "Statement/Reason" geometric proofs.

Finally, after ten chapters which deal with such topics as quadrilaterals, parallel lines, polygon areas, similar and congruent triangles, and circles, the authors introduce logic by methods of truth tables, Euler circles, and tautologies.

Last but not least, a chapter connecting algebra to 2-Dimensional (Cartesian) geometry offer the bridge between the "abstract" world of algebra and the "concrete" world of geometry.