To end this section, let us return to the question of the existence of squares in hyperbolic geometry. Although squares whose angles are right angles do not exist in hyperbolic geometry, there are ‘squares’ of a more general type, whose angles are less than right angles. The easiest way to construct a square of this kind is to draw two straight lines intersecting at right angles at a point O. Our ‘square’ is now the quadrilateral whose four vertices are the intersections A, B, C, D (taken cyclicly) of these two lines with some circle with centre O. See Fig. 2.18. Because of the symmetry of the
...more
