Lobachevsky, Nikolai, << loh buh CHEHF skee, nee kaw LY >> (1792-1856), a Russian mathematician, created a type of geometry called non-Euclidean geometry. Euclid, a Greek mathematician, established a strictly logical set of rules called axioms for geometry around 300 B.C. For more than 2,000 years, people accepted without question that Euclidean geometry was an accurate description of reality—in a sense, the only possible geometry. Lobachevsky was among the first mathematicians to challenge Euclid’s axioms.
Lobachevsky’s article “On the Principles of Geometry” (1829) examined Euclid’s parallel axiom. One way of stating the axiom is Through a point not on a given line, only one line can be drawn parallel to the given line. Lobachevsky and mathematicians Carl Friedrich Gauss of Germany and Janos Bolyai of Hungary independently tried to prove that the parallel axiom was a logical consequence of Euclid’s other axioms. They discovered that no such proof was possible, and so the parallel postulate is an assumption that must be made in Euclid’s geometry. This discovery led them to realize that replacing Euclid’s parallel axiom with an alternate axiom would still result in a consistent system of geometry. See Bolyai, Janos ; Gauss, Carl Friedrich .
Lobachevsky’s article was the first published work on non-Euclidean geometry. He also presented his theory in the article “Imaginary Geometry” (1837) and the books Geometrical Researches on the Theory of Parallels (1840) and Pangeometry (1855).
Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky was born on Dec. 1, 1792, in Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia. He died on Feb. 24, 1856.
See also Euclid ; Geometry (Rise of non-Euclidean geometry) ; Mathematics (Geometry) .
