[Math] Trying to prove corresponding angles are equal in case of parallel lines

anglegeometry

I was trying to find/generate a proof that proves equality of corresponding angles:

Example 1

(keeping above figure in mind) we can safely say that the angle between the two lines will change only when there will be relative rotation between the lines.

Now when we move the horizontal line AB without causing any rotation (moving the line parallel to its original position AB) in some upward position (say the new position of the moved line becomes XY (check the underlying figure)

Example 2

  • there is no rotation hence the angle between CD and XY doesn't change – hence the new angle CZY will be equal to angle CEB –> hence in case of parallel lines cut by a transversal the corresponding angles are equal.

Are you convinced with the proof or do you find anything questionable?

Best Answer

If you are following Euclid's axioms and postulates, you cannot move a line. You may draw through any point $Z$ a line $XY$ parallel to $AB$ by making $\angle EZX=\angle ZEB$. But then you have to prove the corresponding angles are equal. Given two parallel lines and a transversal, Euclid [I, 29] first proves the alternate interior angles equal using his Postulate 5 (for the first time). Then using the equality of vertical angles [I, 15] he proves the corresponding angles equal.

Perhaps Euclid's postulate that you can draw a circle with any point as center and any distance (line) as radius constitutes an isolated case of moving a line in Euclidean geometry. And Descartes later proposed that curves produced by instruments more complex than compasses should be allowed in geometry, provided they were generated by a motion, or series of motions, strictly determined, e.g. the hyperbola and conchoid. But a curve like the quadratrix was ruled out as "mechanical" not geometrical, since it requires two coordinated but independent movements for its generation.

The present case calls not for a new curve but the movement of a given straight line to a new place while keeping the same angle to a tranversal. How exactly is this done? Or do we simply postulate its possibility?