Euclidean plane

The Euclidean plane is the plane that is the object of study in Euclidean geometry (high-school geometry). The plane and the geometry are named after the ancient-Greek mathematician Euclid.

The Euclidean plane is a collection of points P, Q, R, ... between which a distance &rho; is defined, with the properties,
 * 1) &rho;(P,Q) &ge; 0 and &rho;(P,Q) = 0 if and only if P = Q
 * 2) &rho;(P,Q) = &rho;(Q,P)
 * 3) &rho;(P,Q) &le; &rho;(P,R) + &rho;(R,Q) (triangular inequality).

As is known from Euclidean geometry lines can be drawn between points and different geometric figures (triangles, squares, etc.) can be constructed. A geometric figure can be translated and rotated without change of shape. Such a map is called a rigid motion of the figure. The totality of rigid motions form a group of infinite order, the Euclidean group in two dimensions, often written as E(2).

Formally, the Euclidean plane is a 2-dimensional affine space with inner product.