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A Conic Section and A Straight Line

This document describes how to find the points of intersection between a given straight line and a conic section, given that five elements (points or tangents) of the conic section are known. It explains that the points of intersection can be constructed using a projectivity between two projective pencils of lines determined by two of the given points on the conic. This projectivity is uniquely determined by the points of intersection of the line with the projective pencils, and the double points of this projectivity are therefore the desired points of intersection between the line and conic section.

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Raghuveer Chandra
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55 views1 page

A Conic Section and A Straight Line

This document describes how to find the points of intersection between a given straight line and a conic section, given that five elements (points or tangents) of the conic section are known. It explains that the points of intersection can be constructed using a projectivity between two projective pencils of lines determined by two of the given points on the conic. This projectivity is uniquely determined by the points of intersection of the line with the projective pencils, and the double points of this projectivity are therefore the desired points of intersection between the line and conic section.

Uploaded by

Raghuveer Chandra
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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65. A Conic Section and a Straight Line.

Draw the points of intersection of a given straight line with a conic section of
which five elements - points and tangents - are known.

In light of No. 64, we may assume that five points of the conic section are known. The
solution is then based on Steiners double element construction from No. 60 and Theorem 1
from No. 61.

Let e be the given line, and A, B, C, D, E the five known points on the conic. By No. 61,
we can think of the points of the conic as projected from D and E by projective pencils of
lines I and II. These pencils cut e in two projective ranges of points 1 and 2. The points of
intersection S and T of e with the conic section are the double points of the projectivity 1  2.
This projectivity is, however, uniquely determined by

1. the points of intersection A 1  DA 9 e, B 1  DB 9 e, C 1  DC 9 e, and


2. the corresponding points of intersection A 2  EA 9 e, B 2  EB 9 e, C 2  EC 9 e.

We therefore construct (by No. 60) the double points S and T of the projectivity on e
determined by A 1 , B 1 , C 1 and A 2 , B 2 , C 2 . These the desired points of intersection.

l
A B
T C2
C1
B1 C
B2
A1
A2
S

D
E

Note. The reader should try to do this with some sort dynamic geometry software, and
observe that the construction works for any conic section.

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