pons asinorum

American  

[as-uh-nawr-uhm, -nohr-] / ˌæs əˈnɔr əm, -ˈnoʊr- /

noun

Geometry.

1. a geometric proposition that if a triangle has two of its sides equal, the angles opposite these sides are also equal: so named from the difficulty experienced by beginners in mastering it. Euclid, 1:5.

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pons asinorum British  

/ ˌæsɪˈnɔːrəm /

noun

1. the geometric proposition that the angles opposite the two equal sides of an isosceles triangle are equal

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Etymology

Origin of pons asinorum

First recorded in 1745–55; from Latin pōns asinōrum “bridge of asses”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pons asinorum

The pons asinorum is free to all comers and even the eternal triangle's points are true for either hemisphere.

From Time Magazine Archive

A month or two ago you blundered on "pons asinorum."

From Time Magazine Archive

I soon saw that the young girl who had been chosen as the star pupil to wrestle with the pons asinorum was giving an exhibition of memorizing and not of mathematical reasoning.

From Mobilizing Woman-Power by Blatch, Harriot Stanton

The pons asinorum between the mind and the cabeza.

From The Roycroft Dictionary Concocted by Ali Baba and the Bunch on Rainy Days. by Hubbard, Elbert

This axiom evidently expresses the symmetry of perpendicularity, and is the essence of the famous pons asinorum expressed as an axiom.

From The Concept of Nature The Tarner Lectures Delivered in Trinity College, November 1919 by Whitehead, Alfred North