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Geometry is essentially the study of shapes. In the world around us, every object we see is a shape of some kind. Some are simple, like a triangle, square, or circle. Others seem to be combinations of these simple shapes. It is the goal of this text to guide you through the study of the simple shapes that compose nearly everything in the world, so that you can apply these concepts to more complicated problems of geometry. To begin understanding these shapes, we need to first learn their components.

The simplest unit of geometry is the point. A collection of points in a certain array makes a line, and collections of lines in certain arrays create shapes, which may exist in a single plane, or may exist in more than one plane in space. These terms will be more carefully defined in the lessons that follow. For now it is just important to introduce you to the language of geometry. You'll become familiar with the names and properties of these figures, which are the building blocks of geometry, and learn to recognize them in more complex situations.

In this SparkNote, Building Blocks, you'll also be introduced to the concept of dimension, a property of every geometric figure having to do with how it is measured. The dimension of a geometric figure determines whether it has length, area, volume, or none of the three. Dimension is perhaps the most important property of space. These concepts form the foundation of almost all higher geometry, and are important to understand from the start. Enjoy your journey into the world of geometry: you might find that it's just a different way to look at our own world.

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