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Every point in three-dimensional Euclidean space is determined by three coordinates.

In geometry, Euclidean space encompasses the two-dimensional Euclidean plane, the three-
dimensional space of Euclidean geometry, and similar spaces of higher dimension. It is named after
the Ancient Greek mathematician Euclid of Alexandria.[1] The term "Euclidean" distinguishes these
spaces from other types of spaces considered in modern geometry. Euclidean spaces also
generalize to higher dimensions.
Classical Greek geometry defined the Euclidean plane and Euclidean three-dimensional space using
certain postulates, while the other properties of these spaces were deduced as theorems. Geometric
constructions were also used to define rational numbers as ratios of commensurable lengths.
When algebra and mathematical analysis became developed enough, this relation reversed and now
it is more common to define Euclidean spaces from vector spaces, which allows using Cartesian
coordinates and the power of algebra and calculus. This means that points are specified
with tuples of real numbers, called coordinate vectors, and geometric shapes are defined
by equations and inequalities relating these coordinates. This approach has also the advantage of
allowing easily the generalization of geometry to Euclidean spaces of more than three dimensions.
From the modern viewpoint, there is essentially only one Euclidean space of each dimension. While
Euclidean space is defined by a set of axioms, these axioms do not specify how the points are to be
represented.[2] Euclidean space can, as one possible choice of representation, be modeled using
Cartesian coordinates. In this case, the Euclidean space is then modeled by the real coordinate
space (Rn) of the same dimension. In one dimension, this is the real line; in two dimensions, it is
the Cartesian plane; and in higher dimensions it is a coordinate space with three or more real
number coordinates. Mathematicians denote the n-dimensional Euclidean space by En if they wish
to emphasize its Euclidean nature, but Rn is used as well since the latter is assumed to have the
standard Euclidean structure, and these two structures are not always distinguished. Euclidean
spaces have finite dimension.[3]

Contents

• 1Intuitive overview
• 2Euclidean structure
o 2.1Distance
o 2.2Angle
o 2.3Rotations and reflections
o 2.4Euclidean group
• 3Non-Cartesian coordinates
• 4Geometric shapes
o 4.1Lines, planes, and other subspaces
o 4.2Line segments and triangles
o 4.3Polytopes and root systems
o 4.4Curves
o 4.5Balls, spheres, and hypersurfaces
• 5Topology
• 6Applications
• 7Alternatives and generalizations
o 7.1Curved spaces
o 7.2Indefinite quadratic form
o 7.3Other number fields
o 7.4Infinite dimensions
• 8See also
• 9Footnotes
• 10References
• 11External links

Intuitive overview[edit]
One way to think of the Euclidean plane is as a set of points satisfying certain relationships,
expressible in terms of distance and angle. For example, there are two fundamental operations
(referred to as motions) on the plane. One is translation, which means a shifting of the plane so that
every point is shifted in the same direction and by the same distance. The other is rotation about a
fixed point in the plane, in which every point in the plane turns about that fixed point through the
same angle. One of the basic tenets of Euclidean geometry is that two figures (usually considered
as subsets) of the plane should be considered equivalent (congruent) if one can be transformed into
the other by some sequence of translations, rotations and reflections (see below).
In order to make all of this mathematically precise, the theory must clearly define the notions of
distance, angle, translation, and rotation for a mathematically described space. Even when used
in physical theories, Euclidean space is an abstraction detached from actual physical locations,
specific reference frames, measurement instruments, and so on. A purely mathematical definition of
Euclidean space also ignores questions of units of length and other physical dimensions: the
distance in a "mathematical" space is a number, not something expressed in inches or metres. The
standard way to define such space, as carried out in the remainder of this article, is to define the
Euclidean plane as a two-dimensional real vector space equipped with an inner product.[3] The
reason for working with arbitrary vector spaces instead of Rn is that it is often preferable to work in
a coordinate-free manner (that is, without choosing a preferred basis). For then:

• the vectors in the vector space correspond to the points of the Euclidean plane,
• the addition operation in the vector space corresponds to translation, and
• the inner product implies notions of angle and distance, which can be used to define rotation.
Once the Euclidean plane has been described in this language, it is actually a simple matter to
extend

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