Automatic verification of regular constructions in dynamic geometry systems

Abstract

We present an application of automatic theorem proving (ATP) in the verification of constructions made with dynamic geometry software (DGS). Given a specification language for geometric constructions, we can use its processor to deal with syntactic errors. The processor can also detect semantic errors - situations when, for a given concrete set of geometrical objects, a construction is not possible. However, dynamic geometry tools do not test if, for a given set of geometrical objects, a construction is geometrically sound, i.e., if it is possible in a general case. Using ATP, we can do this last step by verifying the geometric constructions deductively. We have developed a system for the automatic verification of regular constructions (made within DGSs GCLC and Eukleides), using our ATP system, GCLCprover. This gives a real-world application of ATP in dynamic geometry tools. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.