Menelaus's theoremMenelaus's theorem, named for Menelaus of Alexandria, is a proposition about triangles in plane geometry. Suppose we have a triangle ABC, and a transversal line that crosses BC, AC, and AB at points D, E, and F respectively, with D, E, and F distinct from A, B, and C. A weak version of the theorem states that where |AB| is taken to be the ordinary length of segment AB: a positive value. The theorem can be strengthened to a statement about signed lengths of segments, which provides some additional information about the relative order of collinear points.
Pappus's hexagon theoremIn mathematics, Pappus's hexagon theorem (attributed to Pappus of Alexandria) states that given one set of collinear points and another set of collinear points then the intersection points of line pairs and and and are collinear, lying on the Pappus line. These three points are the points of intersection of the "opposite" sides of the hexagon . It holds in a projective plane over any field, but fails for projective planes over any noncommutative division ring. Projective planes in which the "theorem" is valid are called pappian planes.
Nine-point circleIn geometry, the nine-point circle is a circle that can be constructed for any given triangle. It is so named because it passes through nine significant concyclic points defined from the triangle. These nine points are: The midpoint of each side of the triangle The foot of each altitude The midpoint of the line segment from each vertex of the triangle to the orthocenter (where the three altitudes meet; these line segments lie on their respective altitudes).
Conic sectionA conic section, conic or a quadratic curve is a curve obtained from a cone's surface intersecting a plane. The three types of conic section are the hyperbola, the parabola, and the ellipse; the circle is a special case of the ellipse, though it was sometimes called as a fourth type. The ancient Greek mathematicians studied conic sections, culminating around 200 BC with Apollonius of Perga's systematic work on their properties. The conic sections in the Euclidean plane have various distinguishing properties, many of which can be used as alternative definitions.
Cyclic quadrilateralIn Euclidean geometry, a cyclic quadrilateral or inscribed quadrilateral is a quadrilateral whose vertices all lie on a single circle. This circle is called the circumcircle or circumscribed circle, and the vertices are said to be concyclic. The center of the circle and its radius are called the circumcenter and the circumradius respectively. Other names for these quadrilaterals are concyclic quadrilateral and chordal quadrilateral, the latter since the sides of the quadrilateral are chords of the circumcircle.
Concurrent linesIn geometry, lines in a plane or higher-dimensional space are concurrent if they intersect at a single point. They are in contrast to parallel lines. In a triangle, four basic types of sets of concurrent lines are altitudes, angle bisectors, medians, and perpendicular bisectors: A triangle's altitudes run from each vertex and meet the opposite side at a right angle. The point where the three altitudes meet is the orthocenter. Angle bisectors are rays running from each vertex of the triangle and bisecting the associated angle.
Degeneracy (mathematics)In mathematics, a degenerate case is a limiting case of a class of objects which appears to be qualitatively different from (and usually simpler than) the rest of the class, and the term degeneracy is the condition of being a degenerate case. The definitions of many classes of composite or structured objects often implicitly include inequalities. For example, the angles and the side lengths of a triangle are supposed to be positive. The limiting cases, where one or several of these inequalities become equalities, are degeneracies.
Euler lineIn geometry, the Euler line, named after Leonhard Euler (ˈɔɪlər), is a line determined from any triangle that is not equilateral. It is a central line of the triangle, and it passes through several important points determined from the triangle, including the orthocenter, the circumcenter, the centroid, the Exeter point and the center of the nine-point circle of the triangle. The concept of a triangle's Euler line extends to the Euler line of other shapes, such as the quadrilateral and the tetrahedron.
Desargues's theoremIn projective geometry, Desargues's theorem, named after Girard Desargues, states: Two triangles are in perspective axially if and only if they are in perspective centrally. Denote the three vertices of one triangle by a, b and c, and those of the other by A, B and C. Axial perspectivity means that lines and meet in a point, lines and meet in a second point, and lines and meet in a third point, and that these three points all lie on a common line called the axis of perspectivity.
Concyclic pointsIn geometry, a set of points are said to be concyclic (or cocyclic) if they lie on a common circle. A polygon whose vertices are concyclic is called a cyclic polygon, and the circle is called its circumscribing circle or circumcircle. All concyclic points are equidistant from the center of the circle. Three points in the plane that do not all fall on a straight line are concyclic, so every triangle is a cyclic polygon, with a well-defined circumcircle. However, four or more points in the plane are not necessarily concyclic.
CircumcircleIn geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a triangle is a circle that passes through all three vertices. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter of the triangle, and its radius is called the circumradius. The circumcenter is the point of intersection between the three perpendicular bisectors of the triangle's sides, and is a triangle center. More generally, an n-sided polygon with all its vertices on the same circle, also called the circumscribed circle, is called a cyclic polygon, or in the special case n = 4, a cyclic quadrilateral.
MidpointIn geometry, the midpoint is the middle point of a line segment. It is equidistant from both endpoints, and it is the centroid both of the segment and of the endpoints. It bisects the segment. The midpoint of a segment in n-dimensional space whose endpoints are and is given by That is, the ith coordinate of the midpoint (i = 1, 2, ..., n) is Given two points of interest, finding the midpoint of the line segment they determine can be accomplished by a compass and straightedge construction.
Duality (projective geometry)In geometry, a striking feature of projective planes is the symmetry of the roles played by points and lines in the definitions and theorems, and (plane) duality is the formalization of this concept. There are two approaches to the subject of duality, one through language () and the other a more functional approach through special mappings. These are completely equivalent and either treatment has as its starting point the axiomatic version of the geometries under consideration.
Pascal's theoremIn projective geometry, Pascal's theorem (also known as the hexagrammum mysticum theorem, Latin for mystical hexagram) states that if six arbitrary points are chosen on a conic (which may be an ellipse, parabola or hyperbola in an appropriate affine plane) and joined by line segments in any order to form a hexagon, then the three pairs of opposite sides of the hexagon (extended if necessary) meet at three points which lie on a straight line, called the Pascal line of the hexagon. It is named after Blaise Pascal.
QuadrilateralIn geometry a quadrilateral is a four-sided polygon, having four edges (sides) and four corners (vertices). The word is derived from the Latin words quadri, a variant of four, and latus, meaning "side". It is also called a tetragon, derived from greek "tetra" meaning "four" and "gon" meaning "corner" or "angle", in analogy to other polygons (e.g. pentagon). Since "gon" means "angle", it is analogously called a quadrangle, or 4-angle. A quadrilateral with vertices , , and is sometimes denoted as .
Secant lineIn geometry, a secant is a line that intersects a curve at a minimum of two distinct points. The word secant comes from the Latin word secare, meaning to cut. In the case of a circle, a secant intersects the circle at exactly two points. A chord is the line segment determined by the two points, that is, the interval on the secant whose ends are the two points. A straight line can intersect a circle at zero, one, or two points. A line with intersections at two points is called a secant line, at one point a tangent line and at no points an exterior line.
TrapezoidIn geometry, a trapezoid (ˈtɹæpəzɔɪd) in USA and Canadian English, or trapezium (trəˈpiːziəm) in British and other forms of English, is a quadrilateral that has at least one pair of parallel sides. The parallel sides are called the bases of the trapezoid. The other two sides are called the legs (or the lateral sides) if they are not parallel; otherwise, the trapezoid is a parallelogram, and there are two pairs of bases. A scalene trapezoid is a trapezoid with no sides of equal measure, in contrast with the special cases below.
HomographyIn projective geometry, a homography is an isomorphism of projective spaces, induced by an isomorphism of the vector spaces from which the projective spaces derive. It is a bijection that maps lines to lines, and thus a collineation. In general, some collineations are not homographies, but the fundamental theorem of projective geometry asserts that is not so in the case of real projective spaces of dimension at least two. Synonyms include projectivity, projective transformation, and projective collineation.
BisectionIn geometry, bisection is the division of something into two equal or congruent parts (having the same shape and size). Usually it involves a bisecting line, also called a 'bisector'. The most often considered types of bisectors are the 'segment bisector' (a line that passes through the midpoint of a given segment) and the 'angle bisector' (a line that passes through the apex of an angle, that divides it into two equal angles). In three-dimensional space, bisection is usually done by a bisecting plane, also called the 'bisector'.
Incidence (geometry)In geometry, an incidence relation is a heterogeneous relation that captures the idea being expressed when phrases such as "a point lies on a line" or "a line is contained in a plane" are used. The most basic incidence relation is that between a point, P, and a line, l, sometimes denoted P I l. If P I l the pair (P, l) is called a flag. There are many expressions used in common language to describe incidence (for example, a line passes through a point, a point lies in a plane, etc.
