Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ib Paper 4 15E c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
Because the half-plane metric is a conformal rescaling of the Euclidean metric, its angles are Euclidean angles. For each , the hyperbolic lines meeting the imaginary axis at a fixed angle at are the Euclidean circleswhere denotes the vertical coordinate. These circles have centres on the real axis and are therefore hyperbolic lines; varying gives the required collection.
To construct a triangle, put one vertex at and a second at on , with . Draw from these vertices the lines making interior angles and with . Their Euclidean centres and radii areIf their other intersection has angle , the law of cosines in the Euclidean triangle formed by the two centres and that intersection givesEquivalently,The right side is greater than one exactly when . Since ranges continuously and strictly increasingly from to infinity for , such a exists. The three lines therefore bound a hyperbolic triangle with the prescribed angles.