Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2001 / ib / Paper 3 / 14B / b / Solution

If two hyperbolic lines intersect, move their intersection to the centre of the Poincaré disk model. Lines through the centre are diameters. Reflection in a diameter making Euclidean angle $\alpha$ with the real axis is $z\mapsto e^{2i\alpha }\overline{z}$. The composition of two such reflections is the rotation $z\mapsto e^{2i(\alpha -\beta )}z$. The Poincaré disk model is conformal, so the Euclidean angle difference is the hyperbolic intersection angle $\theta$, up to sign and replacing it by $\pi -\theta$, neither of which changes rationality of $\theta /\pi$.

The rotation has finite order exactly when $m\theta \in \pi \mathbb{Z}$ for some positive integer $m$, equivalently $\theta /\pi \in \mathbb{Q}$. If $\theta /\pi =r/s$ in lowest terms, its order is $s$. Conversely, the nonintersecting cases in part(a) have infinite order. Therefore