GeometryGeometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is called a geometer. Until the 19th century, geometry was almost exclusively devoted to Euclidean geometry, which includes the notions of point, line, plane, distance, angle, surface, and curve, as fundamental concepts.
ShapeA shape or figure is a graphical representation of an object or its external boundary, outline, or external surface, as opposed to other properties such as color, texture, or material type. A plane shape or plane figure is constrained to lie on a plane, in contrast to solid 3D shapes. A two-dimensional shape or two-dimensional figure (also: 2D shape or 2D figure) may lie on a more general curved surface (a non-Euclidean two-dimensional space). Lists of shapes Some simple shapes can be put into broad categories.
Star-shaped polygonIn geometry, a star-shaped polygon is a polygonal region in the plane that is a star domain, that is, a polygon that contains a point from which the entire polygon boundary is visible. Formally, a polygon P is star-shaped if there exists a point z such that for each point p of P the segment \overline{zp} lies entirely within P. The set of all points z with this property (that is, the set of points from which all of P is visible) is called the kernel of P.
Polygonal chainIn geometry, a polygonal chain is a connected series of line segments. More formally, a polygonal chain P is a curve specified by a sequence of points called its vertices. The curve itself consists of the line segments connecting the consecutive vertices. A simple polygonal chain is one in which only consecutive segments intersect and only at their endpoints. A closed polygonal chain is one in which the first vertex coincides with the last one, or, alternatively, the first and the last vertices are also connected by a line segment.
CollinearityIn geometry, collinearity of a set of points is the property of their lying on a single line. A set of points with this property is said to be collinear (sometimes spelled as colinear). In greater generality, the term has been used for aligned objects, that is, things being "in a line" or "in a row". In any geometry, the set of points on a line are said to be collinear. In Euclidean geometry this relation is intuitively visualized by points lying in a row on a "straight line".
Convex hullIn geometry, the convex hull or convex envelope or convex closure of a shape is the smallest convex set that contains it. The convex hull may be defined either as the intersection of all convex sets containing a given subset of a Euclidean space, or equivalently as the set of all convex combinations of points in the subset. For a bounded subset of the plane, the convex hull may be visualized as the shape enclosed by a rubber band stretched around the subset. Convex hulls of open sets are open, and convex hulls of compact sets are compact.
Computational geometryComputational geometry is a branch of computer science devoted to the study of algorithms which can be stated in terms of geometry. Some purely geometrical problems arise out of the study of computational geometric algorithms, and such problems are also considered to be part of computational geometry. While modern computational geometry is a recent development, it is one of the oldest fields of computing with a history stretching back to antiquity.
Internal and external anglesIn geometry, an angle of a polygon is formed by two adjacent sides. For a simple (non-self-intersecting) polygon, regardless of whether it is convex or non-convex, this angle is called an (or interior angle) if a point within the angle is in the interior of the polygon. A polygon has exactly one internal angle per vertex. If every internal angle of a simple polygon is less than a straight angle (π radians or 180°), then the polygon is called convex.
Polygon coveringIn geometry, a covering of a polygon is a set of primitive units (e.g. squares) whose union equals the polygon. A polygon covering problem is a problem of finding a covering with a smallest number of units for a given polygon. This is an important class of problems in computational geometry. There are many different polygon covering problems, depending on the type of polygon being covered. An example polygon covering problem is: given a rectilinear polygon, find a smallest set of squares whose union equals the polygon.
Rectilinear polygonA rectilinear polygon is a polygon all of whose sides meet at right angles. Thus the interior angle at each vertex is either 90° or 270°. Rectilinear polygons are a special case of isothetic polygons. In many cases another definition is preferable: a rectilinear polygon is a polygon with sides parallel to the axes of Cartesian coordinates. The distinction becomes crucial when spoken about sets of polygons: the latter definition would imply that sides of all polygons in the set are aligned with the same coordinate axes.
