Triangles on the Shape of Local Space

J. S.
January 21, 2016
What is one way the shape of local space can be measured empirically?
Triangles are characterized by their area and sum of interior angles. The
varying character of triangles in flat, spherical, and hyperbolic geometry
provides an empirically veriable means to determine the shape of local space.
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) project seems well suited for
this, a type of measurement that may have been carried out in the late 1820s
by the mathematician C. F. Gauss up to limited technological accuracy. This
paper is a comprehensive exploration of the relationship between triangle
area and sum of interior angles in spherical and hyperbolic geometries with a
question mark on what relevant empirical measurements LISA could possibly
give.
Local space in this context is the small portion of the universe whose shape
is being measured. To start with, it is trivial to show that the sum of interior
angles of a triangle in Euclidean space is 180 . The fifth and last Euclidean
postulate (the parallel postulate) makes this task straightforward. Stated as
Playfairs axiom it asserts that for any straight line l and for any point A not
on the line, there is exactly one straight line through the point A which is
parallel to the line l. This postulate does not hold for spherical and hyperbolic
geometries. In spherical any line through A intersects l and in hyperbolic
there are infinitely many lines through A not intersecting l. As a result
the sum of interior angles of a triangle in these Non-Euclidean geometries
is different from 180 . The exact computation for polygons provides a basis
for determining the shape of local space using light, given that it takes the
shortest path between any two points.
Lets start with the spherical case with completeness. Define a vector space
1

R3 as the usual vector space spanned by basis vectors [(1,0,0), (0,1,0), (0,0,1)]
for Cartesian representation. Let S 2 denote a sphere of radius r in R3 centered
at the origin. [(x, y, z) R3 | x2 +y 2 +z 2 = r2 ] for some x, y and z in R. The
definition of a straight line is the shortest path between two points. On S 2
this is precisely the sphere with smallest curvature, a geodesic. A geodesic is
part of a great circle, that is a circle that divides the sphere in half. Figure 1.
shows a great circle and figure 2 two points that can be joined by a geodesic
within the great circle.
Two great circles intersect at two points on S 2 called negatives of each other.
The green region bounded by the two great circles in figure 3 is called a
diangle. The angles in the green region at both vertices are equal. (Thinking
of the great circles intersection as two intersecting planes proves this along
with rotating two coinciding great circles about the fixed axis through their
intersection points to the desired angle). These are called antipodal angles
associated with the diangles.

Figure 1: [2]

Proposition: Let be the angle of a diangle then the area of the diangle is
2r2 .
Although the area can be calculated directly using a surface of revolution
calculus approach [2], we look at proportionality. Given that r is fixed for
our specific sphere, the area is proportional to the angle of the diangle .
2

Rotating the two great circles about the fixed axis through their intersection
points from 0, to /2, to show proportionality of angle to area for example.
The constant of proportionality is 2 since the area of the sphere (diangle 2)
is 4r2 . We now consider figure 4 and the area of a spherical triangle.

Figure 2: [2]

Theorem 0.1 (Girards Theorem) The area A of a spherical triangle with

angles , , and is A = ( + + )r2

Corollary 0.1.1 For any spherical triangle of non-zero positive area, the
sum of its interior angles is greater than
Before proving Girards theorem it is worth elucidating a few ingredients.
Although the writing may be vague, the red shaded triangles in figure 4. are
ABC and BEF on the back end. Let , , and be angles corresponding to vertices A, B, and C. ABC and DEF have corresponding interior
angles. Each interior angle of one triangle is antipodal to the opposite of the
angle interior to the other triangle. The sides of the triangles have the same
length. Considering the intersection of two great circles as in figure 3. and
adding a third great circle, symmetry of a great circle shows that given the
trajectory on the front half of the sphere, the trajectory on the back half is
inverted uniformly forming an inverted triangle with the same side lengths as
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Figure 3: [2]
the front triangle. Since they have the same interior angles and side lengths
ABC and DEF have the same area. We are now ready to prove Girards
theorem.
Proof of Girards Theorem:
Let DBLU E , DY ELLOW , and DGREEN denote the pairs of diangles corresponding to the colors in figure 4. ABC and DEF each get counted in the three
pairs of diangels. Let A be the area of ABC or DEF. DBLU E + DY ELLOW
gives two overlaps corresponding to ABC and DEF. DBLU E + DY ELLOW
+ DGREEN adds two more overlaps for a total of 4. Figure 4. is an attempt
to depict this.

Figure 4: [2]
Hence,

Area(S 2 ) = Area(RBLU E ) + Area(RY ELLOW ) + Area(RGREEN ) 4A

4r2 = 4r2 + 4r2 + 4r2 4A
A = ( + + )r2

(1)

Q. E. D.

The Global Gauss-Bonnet theorem deduced in [1] and [3] is an elegant differential geometry tool for achieving this result without extensive derivations.
For the area of a hyperbolic triangle we use the theorem,

Theorem 0.2 (GLOBAL GAUSS-BONNET THEOREM) Let R S

be a regular region of an oriented surface and let C1 , ..., Cn be the closed, simple, piecewise regular curves which form the boundary of R. Suppose that each
Ci is positively oriented and let 1 , ..., p be the set of all the external angles
of the curves C1 , ..., Cn . Then
n Z
X
i=1

Ci

Z Z
Kd +

kg (s)ds +
R

p
X

i = 2(R)

(2)

j=1

where s denotes the arc length of Ci , and the integral over Ci means the sum
of integrals in every regular arc of Ci .
The definition of all terms involved and proofs are found in [1] and we merely
use the theorem as it fits the hyperbolic case. K is the Gaussian curvature
of the region and our hyperbolic space itself is defined by negative curvature.
We can let K = C where C is positive. The region R is bounded by
the hyperbolic triangle so the double integral represents the area A of the
triangle. The term kg (s) is the curvature of the regular curves Ci , ..., Cn
and is 0 in the case of our geodesics (straight lines) that form a triangle in
hyperbolic space. The external angles of the triangle 1 , ..., p are related to
the internal angles by j = j with j ranging from 1 to 3. (R) is the
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Euler-Poincare characteristic which is 1 for a triangle. Hence we find that

for a hyperbolic triangle,
!
3
X
1
A=

i
(3)
C
j=1
P
where 3j=1 i is the sum of interior angles. The sum of interior angles of a
triangle is greater than in spherical geometry and less than in hyperbolic
geometry. The exact calculation is given by (1) and (3) for spherical and
hyperbolic triangles respectively.
As light takes the shortest distance wherever it goes, LISA seems well suited
for interior angle measurements. Different experimental methods by researchers indicate that the larger scale universe itself is flat [4].

Figure 5: European Space Agency

References
[1] Differential Geometry of Curves and Surfaces, Manfredo P. do Carmo
1976, page 274.

[2] Spherical Triangles and Girards Theorem, Abhijit Champanerkar, 2014.

[3] Curves and Surfaces, Marco Abate and Francesca Tovena, 2003, page
303.
[4] Introduction to Einsteins General Relativity, James B. Hartle, 2003.