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A, B, C, D, E, F, G Adb, Age, Afc, Bec, BGF, CGD, Fde

This document outlines the axioms and properties of Fano's geometry: 1) Fano's geometry consists of 7 points and 7 lines, with each line containing exactly 3 points and each point being part of exactly 3 lines. 2) Two distinct lines in Fano's geometry intersect at exactly one point, as proven through contradiction by assuming two lines intersect at two or more points. 3) Fano's geometry must contain exactly 7 points, as proven by showing any more or less than 7 points would violate the axioms of the geometry.

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John Esteves Garcia
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73 views2 pages

A, B, C, D, E, F, G Adb, Age, Afc, Bec, BGF, CGD, Fde

This document outlines the axioms and properties of Fano's geometry: 1) Fano's geometry consists of 7 points and 7 lines, with each line containing exactly 3 points and each point being part of exactly 3 lines. 2) Two distinct lines in Fano's geometry intersect at exactly one point, as proven through contradiction by assuming two lines intersect at two or more points. 3) Fano's geometry must contain exactly 7 points, as proven by showing any more or less than 7 points would violate the axioms of the geometry.

Uploaded by

John Esteves Garcia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Math 487

Fano’s Geometry Handout

Axioms for Fano's Geometry

Undefined Terms. point, line, and incident.


Axiom 1. There exists at least one line.
Axiom 2. Every line has exactly three points incident to it.
Axiom 3. Not all points are incident to the same line.
Axiom 4. There is exactly one line incident with any two distinct points.
Axiom 5. There is at least one point incident with any two distinct lines.

Here are two isomorphic models for Fano's Geometry:

Diagram model on the left, points are defined by the seven dots and
lines by the six straight segments and one curved segment. Note
each line contains exactly three points.
The second model is illustrated in the table below.

points Lines
A, B, C, D, ADB, AGE, AFC, BEC,
E, F, G BGF, CGD, FDE

Consider Axiom 5: In many geometries, two distinct lines intersect in exactly one point.
Is the statement true with Fano’s Geometry?
We investigate this question.

The statement may be reworded as


“If two distinct lines exist, then they intersect in exactly one point.”

By Axiom 1, we know there is at least one line.


If that line is the only line, then the statement is vacuously true.
Often this case, called the ‘trivial’ case, is not written when writing a proof of a
conditional statement.

Let p and q be any two distinct lines.


By Axiom 5, there is a point A incident to both p and q.

We have shown there is at least one point. We need to show it is the only point.
Let’s try a proof by contradiction.

Suppose there is a second point B, distinct from A, incident to both p and q.


Then by Axiom 4, p and q are the same line,
but this contradicts that p and q are distinct lines.
Thus p and q intersect in exactly one point A.
Therefore, two distinct lines intersect in exactly one point.

We have proven the following theorem.

Fano's Theorem 1. Two distinct lines intersect in exactly one point.


How many points does a Fano geometry have?
We investigate this question.

Investigation. By Axiom 1, there exists a line l.


Then by Axiom 2, there exist exactly three points A, B, C on line l.
Now by Axiom 3, there exists a point P not on line l.
Hence we have at least four distinct points A, B, C, and P.
By Axiom 4 and since P is not on line l, there are three distinct lines AP, BP, and CP.
And by Axiom 2, each of these lines contains a third point D, E, and F on AP, BP,
and CP, respectively.
P The points A, B, C, D, E, F, and P are distinct.
We show one case the others are left for you.
Suppose D = E. Then AP = DP = EP = BP.
D E F This implies that P is on line AB, a contradiction.
Hence there are at least seven distinct points A, B, C, D, E, F,
A B l C and P.

We assert that there are exactly seven distinct points.


Suppose there exists a distinct eighth point Q.
Note Q is not on l, since A, B, and C are the only points on l.
By Axioms 4 and 5, lines PQ and l must intersect at a point R.
Since A, B, and C are the only points on l, R must be one of A, B, or C.
Suppose R = A.
Since D is on line AP and A = R is on line PQ, we would have R = A, D, P, and Q
collinear which contradicts Axiom 2.
The other cases for B or C are similar.
Hence there are exactly seven distinct points.

We have proven the following theorem.

Fano's Theorem 2. Fano's geometry consists of exactly seven points.

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