Notes on Bolyai's 'Appendix'

Abstract

This paper aims to provide an explanatory edition of Bolyai's 'Appendix Demonstrating the Absolute Science of Space', first published in 1832. In this treatise Bolyai began by extending neutral (or 'absolute') geometry by deriving a number of theorems which are independent of Euclid's parallel postulate. Then, while retaining Euclid first four postulates, he explored the consequences of replacing the parallel postulate with a different assumption, that through a given point not on a given straight line, more than than one straight line can be drawn which does not intersect the given line. On this basis Bolyai developed a non-Euclidean geometry nowadays called hyperbolic geometry. The English translation of Bolyai's text is reprinted in the paper, with explanatory notes provided at the end of each section. Some of the theorems are discussed in detail, with a particular focus on those in which Bolyai derived the trigonometric identities of the hyperbolic plane and on his astonishing quadrature of the circle. Bolyai's terse style of exposition can be quite challenging, so I have tried to fill in some of the mathematical details which he chose to omit, either through lack of space or simply because he thought them to obvious too include.