An Elementary Course in Synthetic Projective GeometryLehmer, Derrick Norman
Science
An Elementary Course in Synthetic Projective Geometry
Lehmer, Derrick Norman
Geometry, Projective
*70.* To get the notation to correspond to the figure, we may take (Fig.
13) _A = 1_, _B = 2_, _S’ = 3_, _D = 4_, _S = 5_, and _C = 6_. If we make
_A = 1_, _C=2_, _S=3_, _D = 4_, _S’=5_, and. _B = 6_, the points _L_ and
_N_ are interchanged, but the line is left unchanged. It is clear that one
point may be named arbitrarily and the other five named in _5! = 120_
different ways, but since, as we have seen, two different assignments of
names give the same line, it follows that there cannot be more than 60
different lines _LMN_ obtained in this way from a given set of six points.
As a matter of fact, the number obtained in this way is in general _60_.
The above theorem, which is of cardinal importance in the theory of the
point-row of the second order, is due to Pascal and was discovered by him
at the age of sixteen. It is, no doubt, the most important contribution to
the theory of these loci since the days of Apollonius. If the six points
be called the vertices of a hexagon inscribed in the curve, then the sides
12 and 45 may be appropriately called a pair of opposite sides. Pascal’s
theorem, then, may be stated as follows:
_The three pairs of opposite sides of a hexagon inscribed in a point-row
of the second order meet in three points on a line._
*71. Harmonic points on a point-row of the second order.* Before
proceeding to develop the consequences of this theorem, we note another
result of the utmost importance for the higher developments of pure
geometry, which follows from the fact that if four points on the locus
project to a fifth in four harmonic rays, they will project to any point
of the locus in four harmonic rays. It is natural to speak of four such
points as four harmonic points on the locus, and to use this notion to
define projective correspondence between point-rows of the second order,
or between a point-row of the second order and any fundamental form of the
first order. Thus, in particular, the point-row of the second order, σ, is
said to be _perspectively related_ to the pencil _S_ when every ray on _S_
goes through the point on σ which corresponds to it.
*72. Determination of the locus.* It is now clear that five points,
arbitrarily chosen in the plane, are sufficient to determine a point-row
of the second order through them. Two of the points may be taken as
centers of two projective pencils, and the three others will determine
three pairs of corresponding rays of the pencils, and therefore all pairs.
If four points of the locus are given, together with the tangent at one of
them, the locus is likewise completely determined. For if the point at
which the tangent is given be taken as the center _S_ of one pencil, and
any other of the points for _S’_, then, besides the two pairs of
corresponding rays determined by the remaining two points, we have one
more pair, consisting of the tangent at _S_ and the ray _SS’_. Similarly,
the curve is determined by three points and the tangents at two of them.
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