5 Point Ellipse
5 Point Ellipse
5 Point Ellipse
14) A conic (section, e.g. circle, ellipse, parabola, hyperbola ) is completely determined
by five points or five tangent lines. Because of the nature of conics, its possible to
determine the sequence of points defining the locus of the curve [Note 1], or the sequence
of tangents defining the envelope of the curve [Note 2].
15) The Theorem of Pascal [Note 3] and its
dual [Note 4] define exact conditions that
connect six points or six lines of a conic.
However, we only need five to define a
conic. The sixth point or line is redundant,
and can therefore be defined as required,
depending on what the goal is. So if the goal
is, for example, determining a chord [Note 5]
or a tangent [Note 6], you can define a sixth
point accordingly.
16) By choosing, for example, an orientation
of a new chord parallel to two given vertices,
you can thus obtain the length of the chord,
and as a consequence you obtain an axis of
oblique symmetry which passes through the
midpoint of a pair of parallel chords, and the
direction of its compliment [Note 7]. If you
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Note 1
35) The point conic. Consider two distinct radial arrays of lines (in the plane) through
points U and U. See Fig. 14. Between these two points, define a projectivity using the
one-to-one correspondence of at least three corresponding points or lines. Lets take
three pairs of lines (a, a), (b, b), (c, c). The intersection of each pair of lines is called a
common point (shown as larger black dots on the dotted ellipse). Each two pair of lines
determine a quadrilateral (or projective
quadrangle).
Fig. 14 highlights the
quadrilaterals [(a, a), (b, b)] and [(b, b), (c,
c)]. The third quadrilateral [(a, a), (c, c)]
extends off the page to the right. Within each
quadrilateral, the intersections of each line and
its partners prime (e.g. (a, b), (a, b)) are
called the associate points (shown as small
black circles). The associate points are always
aligned to a point O, called the center of
projectivity.
36) When the center of projectivity O coincides
with the line containing points (U, U), the line
is called united because it corresponds to itself
in the projectivity, which then becomes a
perspectivity. When U and U coincide, the
projectivity becomes an involution, and the
corresponding elements are called conjugate.
37) The first theorem of Jacob Steiner (1796-1863) states that: if from two points U and
U we project the other points, and if we retain two corresponding rays that project the
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39) To determine the local tangent at any point of the conic, its sufficient to determine
the projectivity that has this point as one of the two centers of the radial arrays (or poles,
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Through any four vertices, we can trace three different pairs of lines, such as the pairs 1
(AB + CD), 2 (BC + DA), and 3 (AC + DB) shown in Fig. 17. Each pair of lines has an
associated point of intersection (1, 2, 3).
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Thus, for every six distinct points on a conic curve we can define (15 x 4) = 60 distinct
Pascal lines.
Note 4
47) Brianchons theorem. The dual theorem to Pascal's theorem is that of Charles-Julien
Brianchon (1785-1864) according to which: Given six points on a conic you can
construct a hexagon composed of the tangents to the conic though those points, and
collectively the lines that connect opposite
vertices of this hexagon will intersect in a
common point; this point is called the
point of Brianchon. Analogously to the
theorem of Pascal, for every circumscribed
hexagon there corresponds a point of
Brianchon.
Note 5
48) Determining a chord. Given five
points A, B, C, D and E, we want to
determine the length of a generic chord
going through one point (for example,
chord a through point A).
We can determine any sequence with the
unknown point X that precedes or follows
the known vertices, for example (XABCDE)
as shown in Fig. 19. The first point P1 is
determined by the opposite sides AB and
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