Plane (Geometry) : From Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Plane (geometry) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 of 9
Plane (geometry)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In mathematics, a plane is any flat, two-

dimensional surface. A plane is the two
dimensional analogue of a point (zero-
dimensions), a line (one-dimension) and a
space (three-dimensions). Planes can arise as
subspaces of some higher dimensional space,
as with the walls of a room, or they may enjoy
an independent existence in their own right, as
in the setting of Euclidean geometry. Two intersecting planes in
three-dimensional space
When working in two-dimensional Euclidean
space, the definite article is used, the plane, to
refer to the whole space. Many fundamental tasks in geometry, trigonometry,
and graphing are performed in two-dimensional space, or in other words, in
the plane. A lot of mathematics can be and has been performed in the plane,
notably in the areas of geometry, trigonometry, graph theory and graphing.
Contents
1 Euclidean geometry
3
2 Planes embedded in
2.1 Properties
2.2 Definition with a point and a normal vector
2.3 Define a plane with a point and two vectors lying on it
2.4 Define a plane through three points
2.4.1 Method 1
2.4.2 Method 2
2.4.3 Method 3
2.5 Distance from a point to a plane

2.6 Line of intersection between two planes
2.7 Dihedral angle
3 Planes in various areas of mathematics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_(geometry) 4/7/2010
4 Topological and
and differential geometric no
etric notions
Euclidean geometry
Main article: Euclidean Geometry
Euclid set forth the first known axiomatic treatment of geometry.

[citation needed]
He selected a small core of undefined terms (called common
notions) and postulates (or axioms) which he then used to prove various
geometrical statements. Although the plane in its modern sense is not directly
given a definition anywhere in the Elements, it may be thought of as part of
[1]
the common notions. In his work Euclid never makes use of numbers to
[citation needed]
measure length, angle, or area. In this way the Euclidean plane
is not quite the same as the Cartesian plane.
3
Planes embedded in
This section is specifically concerned with planes
3
embedded in three dimensions: specifically, in . Three parallel
planes.
Properties
In three-dimensional Euclidean space, we may exploit the following facts that
do not hold in higher dimensions:
Two planes are either parallel or they intersect in a line.

A line is either parallel to a plane, intersects it at a single point or is
contained in the plane.
Two lines perpendicular to the same plane must be parallel to each other.
Two planes perpendicular to the same line must be parallel to each other.
Definition with a point and a normal vector

In a three-dimensional space, another important way of defining a plane is by
specifying a point and a normal vector to the plane.
Let r0 be the position vector of some known point P0 in the plane, and let n
be a nonzero vector normal to the plane. The idea is that a point P with
position vector r is in the plane if and only if the vector drawn from P0 to P
is perpendicular to n. Recalling that two vectors are perpendicular if and only
if their dot product is zero, it follows that the desired plane can be expressed
as the set of all points r such that
(The dot here means a dot product, not scalar multiplication.) Expanded this
becomes
[2][3]
which is the familiar equation for a plane.
Define a plane with a point and two vectors lying on it

Alternatively, a plane may be described parametrically as the set of all points
of the form
where s and t range over all real numbers, v and w are given vectors defining
the plane, and r0 is the vector representing the position of an arbitrary (but
fixed) point on the plane. The vectors v and w can be visualized as vectors
starting at r0 and pointing in different directions along the plane. Note that v
and w can be perpendicular, but cannot be parallel.
Define a plane through three points
Let p1=(x1, y1, z1), p2=(x2, y2, z2), and p3=(x3, y3, z3) be non-
colinear points.
Method 1
The plane passing through p1, p2, and p3 can be defined as the set of all
points (x,y,z) that satisfy the following determinant equations:
Method 2
To describe the plane as an equation in the form ax + by + cz + d = 0,

solve the following system of equations:
This system can be solved using Cramer's Rule and basic matrix
manipulations. Let . Then,
These equations are parametric in d. Setting d equal to any non-zero number

and substituting it into these equations will yield one solution set.
Method 3
This plane can also be described by the "point and a normal vector"
prescription above. A suitable normal vector is given by the cross product
[3]
and the point r0 can be taken to be any of the given points p1,p2 or p3.
Distance from a point to a plane

For a plane and a point not necessarily
lying on the plane, the shortest distance from to the plane is
It follows that lies in the plane if and only if D=0.
If meaning that a, b and c are normalized then the equation

becomes
[2]
Line of intersection between two planes

Given intersecting planes described by and , the
line of intersection is perpendicular to both and and thus parallel to
. This cross product is zero only if the planes are parallel, and are
therefore non-intersecting or coincident.
Any point in space may be written as since is a basis In this equation c is
Any point in space may be written as , since

is a basis. In this equation, c3 is the line's parameter, and c1
and c2 are constants. By taking the dot product of this equation against and
, and by noting that , we obtain two scalar equations that may be
solved for {c1,c2}.
If we further assume that and are orthonormal then the closest point on
the line of intersection to the origin is . If that is not the case,
then a more complex procedure must be used [1]
(http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Plane-PlaneIntersection.html).
Dihedral angle
Given two intersecting planes described by and
, the dihedral angle between them is defined to be
the angle Į between their normal directions:
Planes in various areas of mathematics

In addition to its familiar geometric structure, with isomorphisms that are
isometries with respect to the usual inner product, the plane may be viewed at
various other levels of abstraction. Each level of abstraction corresponds to a
specific category.
At one extreme, all geometrical and metric concepts may be dropped to leave
the topological plane, which may be thought of as an idealized homotopically
trivial infinite rubber sheet, which retains a notion of proximity, but has no
distances. The topological plane has a concept of a linear path, but no concept
of a straight line. The topological plane, or its equivalent the open disc, is the
basic topological neighborhood used to construct surfaces (or 2-manifolds)
classified in low-dimensional topology. Isomorphisms of the topological plane
are all continuous bijections. The topological plane is the natural context for
the branch of graph theory that deals with planar graphs, and results such as
the four color theorem.
The plane may also be viewed as an affine space, whose isomorphisms are
combinations of translations and non-singular linear maps. From this
viewpoint there are no distances, but colinearity and ratios of distances on any
line are preserved.
Differential geometry views a plane as a 2-dimensional real manifold, a

topological plane which is provided with a differential structure. Again in this
case, there is no notion of distance, but there is now a concept of smoothness
of maps, for example a differentiable or smooth path (depending on the type
of differential structure applied). The isomorphisms in this case are bijections
with the chosen degree of differentiability.
In the opposite direction of abstraction, we may apply a compatible field

structure to the geometric plane, giving rise to the complex plane and the
major area of complex analysis. The complex field has only two
isomorphisms that leave the real line fixed, the identity and conjugation.
In the same way as in the real case, the plane may also be viewed as the
simplest, one-dimensional (over the complex numbers) complex manifold,
sometimes called the complex line. However, this viewpoint contrasts sharply
with the case of the plane as a 2-dimensional real manifold. The isomorphisms
are all conformal bijections of the complex plane, but the only possibilities are
maps that correspond to the composition of a multiplication by a complex
number and a translation.
In addition, the Euclidean geometry (which has zero curvature everywhere) is

not the only geometry that the plane may have. The plane may be given a
spherical geometry by using the stereographic projection. This can be thought
of as placing a sphere on the plane (just like a ball on the floor), removing the
top point, and projecting the sphere onto the plane from this point). This is one
of the projections that may be used in making a flat map of part of the Earth's
surface. The resulting geometry has constant positive curvature.
Alternatively, the plane can also be given a metric which gives it constant
negative curvature giving the hyperbolic plane. The latter possibility finds an

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Plane (geometry) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 of 9

In mathematics, a plane is any flat, two-

 2.5 Distance from a point to a plane

Euclid set forth the first known axiomatic treatment of geometry.

 Two planes are either parallel or they intersect in a line.

Definition with a point and a normal vector

specifying a point and a normal vector to the plane.

Define a plane with a point and two vectors lying on it

and w can be perpendicular, but cannot be parallel.

Define a plane through three points

To describe the plane as an equation in the form ax + by + cz + d = 0,

manipulations. Let . Then,

These equations are parametric in d. Setting d equal to any non-zero number

Distance from a point to a plane

It follows that lies in the plane if and only if D=0.

If meaning that a, b and c are normalized then the equation

Line of intersection between two planes

Any point in space may be written as since is a basis In this equation c is

Any point in space may be written as , since

Planes in various areas of mathematics

Differential geometry views a plane as a 2-dimensional real manifold, a

In the opposite direction of abstraction, we may apply a compatible field

In addition, the Euclidean geometry (which has zero curvature everywhere) is

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2.5 Distance from a point to a plane

Two planes are either parallel or they intersect in a line.