A methodologically pure proof of a convex geometry problem (Q5948416)

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scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1669214
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A methodologically pure proof of a convex geometry problem
scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1669214

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    A methodologically pure proof of a convex geometry problem (English)
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    18 November 2001
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    An idea of Hilbert was ``to preserve the purity of the method, i.e., to use in the proof of a theorem as far as possible only those auxiliary means that are required by the content of the theorem'' (translated from German by V. Pambuccian). Following this idea, the author of the paper under review presents an elegant proof of the following convex geometry statement: Given \(n\) red and \(n\) blue points such that no three are collinear, one can pair each of the red points with a blue point so that the \(n\) segments which have these paired points as endpoints are disjoint. The author translates the statement into the language with one kind of variables (for points) and a ternary predicate \(B\) (for betweenness relation). His proof is based on an axiom system (\{A1,\dots, A9\}) which is equivalent to that for convex geometry given by \textit{W. A. Coppel} [Foundations of convex geometry, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1998; Zbl 0901.52001)]. The reviewer found two small errors: on page 403 line 5 from top ``A subset \(H\)'' should be replaced by ``An affine subset \(H\)''; on the same page line 7 from top ``\(F\)'' should be replaced by ``\(\langle F\rangle\)''.
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    betweenness
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    convexity
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    axiomatic method
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