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) College, Oxford, and who was a friend of Dodgson, used to walk over to visit Daresbury on Sundays, sometimes helping with the church services. Bayne would bring his son Vere, who became a lifelong friend of the young Charles Lutwidge. Other friends and visitors included Richard Durnford, Rector of Middleton, Lancashire; Francis Egerton, Member of Parliament for South Lancashire and John Wilson Patten, MP for North Lancashire. Dodgson was concerned about the canal workers on the Bridgewater Canal running past his parish. Together with Egerton, who was a wealthy local landowner, he converted a barge into a floating chapel, moored