Elliptic geometry geometry is that the sum of the interior angles of a triangle is greater than 180 degrees. In the spherical model, for example, a triangle can be constructed with vertices at the locations where the three positive Cartesian coordinate axes intersect the sphere, and all three of its internal angles are 90 degrees, summing to 270 degrees. For sufficiently small triangles, the excess over 180 degrees can be made arbitrarily small. The Pythagorean theorem fails in elliptic geometry. In the 90°–90°–90° triangle described above, all three sides have the same length, and consequently do not satisfy formula_1. The Pythagorean result
Langley’s Adventitious Angles the same 80-80-20 triangle but different internal angles. A quadrilateral such as BCEF in which the angles formed by the diagonals with the sides are all rational (when measured in degrees) is called an adventitious quadrangle. Numerous constructions for other adventitious quadrangles beyond the one appearing in Langley's puzzle are known. They form several infinite families and an additional set of sporadic examples. Classifying the adventitious quadrangles (which need not be convex) turns out to be equivalent to classifying all triple intersections of diagonals in regular polygons. This was solved by Gerrit Bol in 1936 (Beantwoording van prijsvraag # 17,