Fall 2026
This course will cover Euclidean and Non-Euclidean geometry from an axiomatic standpoint. Topics include incidence and projective geometry, Euclidean geometry and the Parallel Postulate, and hyperbolic geometry. The historical development, significance, and philosophical implications of the material will be discussed.
This is a COLL 200 course anchored in the knowledge domain of Natural World and Quantitative Reasoning (NQR).
Lectures: Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:30 -- 1:50pm in Boswell Hall 40
Office hours: Mondays & Wednesdays 1 -- 3pm, Tuesdays & Thursdays 11am -- 12pm, or by appointment
Office: Jones Hall 101C
Textbook: Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometries Development and History (4th edition) by Marvin J. Greenberg
Syllabus: pdf
Grades: 30% homework + 10% participation + 30% quiz and midterm + 30% final project
We will use Blackboard and Gradescope. All course information and materials will be posted both here and on Blackboard. Homework should be submitted via Gradescope. You should have already been enrolled in the course on Gradescope, if you log in via School Credentials.
Here are some instructional videos for submitting homework on Gradescope: Submit homework on the Gradescope mobile app,
Submit pdfs on the Gradescope website
Please remember to assign each page of your submission to the corresponding problem, otherwise I may not be able to easily find your solutions.
Quiz, scheduled in class on Thursday Oct. 1 at 12:30 -- 1:20pm
Midterm, scheduled in class on Thursday Nov. 12 at 12:30 -- 1:50pm
In consultation with the instructor, you will choose a topic in geometry and complete a 2-part final project.
Part I of the project focuses on mathematical content. You are asked to write a mathematical exposition (at least 5 pages in length without references) on a geometric topic of your choice.
Part II of the project reaches out to another discipline. In a medium of your choice, showcase how your chosen topic is related to a non-mathematical discipline. This could be a short paper (at least 2.5 pages without references), a podcast, a short video (2-3 minutes), or an artwork (with a brief description of how geometric ideas are applied).
The proposal and all written components of your project should be typeset in LaTeX. A template will be provided. For more instructions, see the "Final project" document: pdf.
Important dates:
Proposal Friday, October 16 at 11:59pm
Part I intro or skeleton Friday, November 20 at 11:59pm
First draft Monday, December 7 at 11:59pm
Final draft Monday, December 14 at 11:59pm
LaTeX is a software system for document preparation, widely used by mathematicians and many other scientists to type their work. You are required to typeset all written components of your final project in LaTeX. A template will be provided.
LaTeX resources:
Overleaf Intro to LaTeX, many youtube videos (e.g. here)
Many templates on Overleaf for homework, this blog post about the homework document class
Detexify: a tool to translate handwritten symbols to LaTeX codes
TeXShop (for MacOS), TeXstudio, and of course Overleaf (recommended -- easy to use, online)