PRINCIPIA GEOMETRICA · axiomatic school geometry

Principia Geometrica
From four axioms — an atlas of school-geometry theorems.

Euclid's Elements is a brilliant idea but its axioms and definitions do not meet modern standards of rigour. This project takes G. D. Birkhoff's four axioms (1932), follows the spine of the Elements, and rebuilds every theorem you meet in school from the ground up, so you can see where each theorem comes from. The full theorem atlas is now live — open any node below to watch its derivation.

— PRINCIPIA —
axioms → theorems · DAG
Principia Geometrica
PREFACE
Preface

Before the four axioms — what is a definition? what is an axiom? from Euclid through Hilbert to Birkhoff, why we start from here.

Read the preface →

Four axioms

Birkhoff (1932) · real numbers as measure

These four are equivalent to Hilbert I + II + III + IV + V, but more direct: measurement is taken as primitive, and continuity is delegated to the real numbers.

Measurement convention: rectangle area = length × width, circle area πr², and circumference 2πr are accepted as base measure formulas — their rigorous proofs require limits and lie outside this atlas; every other area / arc-length formula is derived from these.

The theorem atlas

Below is the full backbone, all the way from the axioms to the area formulae. Every incoming edge marks a logical dependency on an axiom or an earlier theorem; open any node to watch its own derivation animation.

AXIOM theorem · readable theorem · to be made