Non-Euclidean geometry caused a re-examination of the teaching of geometry based on Euclid's Elements. This curriculum issue was hotly debated at the time and was even the subject of a book, "Euclid and his Modern Rivals", written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832–1898) better known as Lewis Carroll, the author of "Alice in Wonderland". In analytic geometry a plane is described with Cartesian coordinates : "C" = { ("x,y") : "x", "y" ∈ ℝ }. The points are sometimes identified with complex numbers where ε ∈ { –1, 0, 1}. The Euclidean plane corresponds to the case since the modulus of is given
Charles Dodgson (priest) at Preston Brook, and held weekly services there for the bargees. In 1843 Dodgson was given the Crown living of Croft, Yorkshire, by the Prime Minister, Robert Peel, at the urging of Longley. In 1852 he was additionally collated as a canon of Ripon Cathedral and in 1854 became the Archdeacon of Richmond. At Croft he restored the chancel of St Peter's Church and once again started a school, sacrificing part of the glebe to it. He taught there, as did his wife and later some of his children. Dodgson was a contemporary and college friend of Edward Bouverie Pusey,