In geometry, Clifford's theorems, named after the English geometer William Kingdon Clifford, are a sequence of theorems relating to intersections of circles.
In geometry, Clifford's theorems, named after the English geometer William Kingdon Clifford, are a sequence of theorems relating to intersections of circles.
The first theorem considers any four circles passing through a common point M and otherwise in general position, meaning that there are six additional points where exactly two of the circles cross and that no three of these crossing points are collinear. Every set of three of these four circles has among them three crossing points, and (by the assumption of non-collinearity) there exists a circle passing through these three crossing points. The conclusion is that, like the first set of four circles, the second set of four circles defined in this way all pass through a single point P (in general not the same point as M).
The second theorem considers five circles in general position passing through a single point M. Each subset of four circles defines a new point P according to the first theorem. Then these five points all lie on a single circle C.
The third theorem considers six circles in general position that pass through a single point M. Each subset of five circles defines a new circle by the second theorem. Then these six new circles C all pass through a single point.
The sequence of theorems can be continued indefinitely.
In mathematics, the concept of a projective space originated from the visual effect of perspective, where parallel lines seem to meet at infinity. A projective space may thus be viewed as the extension of a Euclidean space, or, more generally, an affine space with points at infinity, in such a way that there is one point at infinity of each direction of parallel lines.
In mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant with respect to projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary Euclidean geometry, projective geometry has a different setting, projective space, and a selective set of basic geometric concepts. The basic intuitions are that projective space has more points than Euclidean space, for a given dimension, and that geometric transformations are permitted that transform the extra points to Euclidean points, and vice-versa.
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In mathematics, incidence geometry is the study of incidence structures. A geometric structure such as the Euclidean plane is a complicated object that involves concepts such as length, angles, continuity, betweenness, and incidence. An incidence structure is what is obtained when all other concepts are removed and all that remains is the data about which points lie on which lines. Even with this severe limitation, theorems can be proved and interesting facts emerge concerning this structure. Such fundamental results remain valid when additional concepts are added to form a richer geometry. It sometimes happens that authors blur the distinction between a study and the objects of that study, so it is not surprising to find that some authors refer to incidence structures as incidence geometries.
In mathematics, the "happy ending problem" is the following statement:
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In Euclidean and projective geometry, just as two (distinct) points determine a line, five points determine a conic. There are additional subtleties for conics that do not exist for lines, and thus the statement and its proof for conics are both more technical than for lines.