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<title>Euclid's Elements, Book I, Definition 2</title>
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<div id="header"><a class="hover" href="https://mathcs.clarku.edu/%7Edjoyce/java/elements/elements.html"><h1>Euclid's Elements</h1></a><a class="hover" href="https://mathcs.clarku.edu/%7Edjoyce/java/elements/bookI/bookI.html"><h1>Book I</h1></a></div>
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<div class="theorem">
<h1>Definition 2</h1>
<div class="statement">A <i>line</i> is breadthless length.</div>
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<a name="guide"><h2>Guide</h2></a>
“Line” is the second primitive term in the <i>Elements.</i> The
description, “breadthless length,” says that a line will have one
dimension, length, but it won’t have breadth. The terms length and
breadth are not defined in the <i>Elements.</i> In <a href="https://mathcs.clarku.edu/%7Edjoyce/java/elements/bookI/defI5.html">I.Def.5</a> a surface is defined with the two dimensions length and breadth, and in <a href="https://mathcs.clarku.edu/%7Edjoyce/java/elements/bookXI/defXI1.html">XI.Def.1</a> a solid is defined with the three dimensions length, breadth, and depth.
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<p>One cannot tell from this definition what kind of line is meant by
line, but later a straight line defined to be a special kind of line.
One can conclude, then, that lines need not be straight. Perhaps
“curve” would be a better translation than line since Euclid meant what
is commonly called a curve in modern English, where a curve may or may
not be straight.
</p><p>Also, from the next definition, it is apparent that Euclid’s
lines may have ends, so they are line segments or curve segments. But
they need not have ends in all cases since the entire circumference of a
circle is an example of a line. Indeed, lines need not be finite in
all cases; there are a few instances in the <i>Elements</i> where a line is not bounded, and that is usually indicated by the language. See, for example, proposition <a href="https://mathcs.clarku.edu/%7Edjoyce/java/elements/bookI/propI12.html">I.12</a>.
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<p>One piece of terminology that Euclid did not mention explicitly in a
definition is a phrase to indicate when a line passes through a point.
That would be a primitive relation that could hold between a line and a
point. Postulates would be included as well to give meaning to the
phrase as they are in modern treatments of elementary geometry.
</p><div id="footer"><br><p></p><hr size="6"><p></p><center><table><tbody><tr valign="top"><td>Next: <a href="https://mathcs.clarku.edu/%7Edjoyce/java/elements/bookI/defI3.html">I.Def.3</a> </td><td><form name="PropForm"><select name="select1" size="1" onchange="if (options[selectedIndex].value){ location = options[selectedIndex].value }"><option value="" selected="selected">Select from Book I</option><option value="bookI.html">Book I intro</option><option value="defI1.html">I.Def.1</option><option value="defI2.html">I.Def.2</option><option value="defI3.html">I.Def.3</option><option value="defI4.html">I.Def.4</option><option value="defI5.html">I.Def.5</option><option value="defI6.html">I.Def.6</option><option value="defI7.html">I.Def.7</option><option value="defI8.html">I.Def.8</option><option value="defI9.html">I.Def.9</option><option value="defI10.html">I.Def.10</option><option value="defI11.html">I.Def.11-12</option><option value="defI13.html">I.Def.13-14</option><option 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Joyce</a><br><img src="joyceDefI2_files/dj.gif"><br><a href="http://www.clarku.edu/departments/mathcs/">Department of Mathematics and Computer Science</a><br><a href="http://www.clarku.edu/">Clark University</a><br>Worcester, MA 01610</font></p></div>
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