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Pentagram Map
In mathematics, the pentagram map is a discrete dynamical system on the moduli space of polygons in the projective plane. The pentagram map takes a given polygon, finds the intersections of the shortest diagonals of the polygon, and constructs a new polygon from these intersections. Richard Schwartz (mathematician), Richard Schwartz introduced the pentagram map for a general polygon in a 1992 paper though it seems that the special case, in which the map is defined for pentagons only, goes back to an 1871 paper of Alfred Clebsch and a 1945 paper of Theodore Motzkin. The pentagram map is similar in spirit to the constructions underlying Desargues' theorem and Poncelet's porism. It echoes the rationale and construction underlying a conjecture of Branko Grünbaum concerning the diagonals of a polygon. Definition of the map Basic construction Suppose that the vertex (geometry), vertices of the polygon P are given by P_1,P_3,P_5,\ldots The image of ''P'' under the pentagram map is the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many areas of mathematics, which include number theory (the study of numbers), algebra (the study of formulas and related structures), geometry (the study of shapes and spaces that contain them), Mathematical analysis, analysis (the study of continuous changes), and set theory (presently used as a foundation for all mathematics). Mathematics involves the description and manipulation of mathematical object, abstract objects that consist of either abstraction (mathematics), abstractions from nature orin modern mathematicspurely abstract entities that are stipulated to have certain properties, called axioms. Mathematics uses pure reason to proof (mathematics), prove properties of objects, a ''proof'' consisting of a succession of applications of in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vertex (geometry)
In geometry, a vertex (: vertices or vertexes), also called a corner, is a point (geometry), point where two or more curves, line (geometry), lines, or line segments Tangency, meet or Intersection (geometry), intersect. For example, the point where two lines meet to form an angle and the point where edge (geometry), edges of polygons and polyhedron, polyhedra meet are vertices. Definition Of an angle The ''vertex'' of an angle is the point where two Line (mathematics)#Ray, rays begin or meet, where two line segments join or meet, where two lines intersect (cross), or any appropriate combination of rays, segments, and lines that result in two straight "sides" meeting at one place. :(3 vols.): (vol. 1), (vol. 2), (vol. 3). Of a polytope A vertex is a corner point of a polygon, polyhedron, or other higher-dimensional polytope, formed by the intersection (Euclidean geometry), intersection of Edge (geometry), edges, face (geometry), faces or facets of the object. In a polygon, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monodromy
In mathematics, monodromy is the study of how objects from mathematical analysis, algebraic topology, algebraic geometry and differential geometry behave as they "run round" a singularity. As the name implies, the fundamental meaning of ''monodromy'' comes from "running round singly". It is closely associated with covering maps and their degeneration into ramification; the aspect giving rise to monodromy phenomena is that certain functions we may wish to define fail to be ''single-valued'' as we "run round" a path encircling a singularity. The failure of monodromy can be measured by defining a monodromy group: a group of transformations acting on the data that encodes what happens as we "run round" in one dimension. Lack of monodromy is sometimes called ''polydromy''. Definition Let X be a connected and locally connected based topological space with base point x, and let p: \tilde \to X be a covering with fiber F = p^(x). For a loop \gamma: , 1\to X based at x, denote a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Projective Transformation
In 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. Historically, homographies (and projective spaces) have been introduced to study perspective and projections in Euclidean geometry, and the term ''homography'', which, etymologically, roughly means "similar drawing", dates from this time. At the end of the 19th century, formal definitions of projective spaces were introduced, which extended Euclidean and affine spaces by the addition of new points called points at infinity. The term "projective transformation" originated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Equivalence Classes
In mathematics, when the elements of some set S have a notion of equivalence (formalized as an equivalence relation), then one may naturally split the set S into equivalence classes. These equivalence classes are constructed so that elements a and b belong to the same equivalence class if, and only if, they are equivalent. Formally, given a set S and an equivalence relation \sim on S, the of an element a in S is denoted /math> or, equivalently, to emphasize its equivalence relation \sim, and is defined as the set of all elements in S with which a is \sim-related. The definition of equivalence relations implies that the equivalence classes form a partition of S, meaning, that every element of the set belongs to exactly one equivalence class. The set of the equivalence classes is sometimes called the quotient set or the quotient space of S by \sim, and is denoted by S /. When the set S has some structure (such as a group operation or a topology) and the equivalence relat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Map (mathematics)
In mathematics, a map or mapping is a function (mathematics), function in its general sense. These terms may have originated as from the process of making a map, geographical map: ''mapping'' the Earth surface to a sheet of paper. The term ''map'' may be used to distinguish some special types of functions, such as homomorphisms. For example, a linear map is a homomorphism of vector spaces, while the term linear function may have this meaning or it may mean a linear polynomial. In category theory, a map may refer to a morphism. The term ''transformation'' can be used interchangeably, but ''transformation (function), transformation'' often refers to a function from a set to itself. There are also a few less common uses in logic and graph theory. Maps as functions In many branches of mathematics, the term ''map'' is used to mean a Function (mathematics), function, sometimes with a specific property of particular importance to that branch. For instance, a "map" is a "continuous f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Projective Transformations
In 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. Historically, homographies (and projective spaces) have been introduced to study perspective and projections in Euclidean geometry, and the term ''homography'', which, etymologically, roughly means "similar drawing", dates from this time. At the end of the 19th century, formal definitions of projective spaces were introduced, which extended Euclidean and affine spaces by the addition of new points called points at infinity. The term "projective transformation" originated in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commutative Property
In mathematics, a binary operation is commutative if changing the order of the operands does not change the result. It is a fundamental property of many binary operations, and many mathematical proofs depend on it. Perhaps most familiar as a property of arithmetic, e.g. or , the property can also be used in more advanced settings. The name is needed because there are operations, such as division and subtraction, that do not have it (for example, ); such operations are ''not'' commutative, and so are referred to as noncommutative operations. The idea that simple operations, such as the multiplication and addition of numbers, are commutative was for many centuries implicitly assumed. Thus, this property was not named until the 19th century, when new algebraic structures started to be studied. Definition A binary operation * on a set ''S'' is ''commutative'' if x * y = y * x for all x,y \in S. An operation that is not commutative is said to be ''noncommutative''. One says ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General Position
In algebraic geometry and computational geometry, general position is a notion of genericity for a set of points, or other geometric objects. It means the ''general case'' situation, as opposed to some more special or coincidental cases that are possible, which is referred to as special position. Its precise meaning differs in different settings. For example, generically, two lines in the plane intersect in a single point (they are not parallel or coincident). One also says "two generic lines intersect in a point", which is formalized by the notion of a ''generic point''. Similarly, three generic points in the plane are not collinear; if three points are collinear (even stronger, if two coincide), this is a degenerate case. This notion is important in mathematics and its applications, because degenerate cases may require an exceptional treatment; for example, when stating general theorems or giving precise statements thereof, and when writing computer programs (see '' generic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Field (mathematics)
In mathematics, a field is a set (mathematics), set on which addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division (mathematics), division are defined and behave as the corresponding operations on rational number, rational and real numbers. A field is thus a fundamental algebraic structure which is widely used in algebra, number theory, and many other areas of mathematics. The best known fields are the field of rational numbers, the field of real numbers and the field of complex numbers. Many other fields, such as field of rational functions, fields of rational functions, algebraic function fields, algebraic number fields, and p-adic number, ''p''-adic fields are commonly used and studied in mathematics, particularly in number theory and algebraic geometry. Most cryptographic protocols rely on finite fields, i.e., fields with finitely many element (set), elements. The theory of fields proves that angle trisection and squaring the circle cannot be done with a compass and straighte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plane (geometry)
In mathematics, a Euclidean plane is a Euclidean space of dimension two, denoted \textbf^2 or \mathbb^2. It is a geometric space in which two real numbers are required to determine the position of each point. It is an affine space, which includes in particular the concept of parallel lines. It has also metrical properties induced by a distance, which allows to define circles, and angle measurement. A Euclidean plane with a chosen Cartesian coordinate system is called a '' Cartesian plane''. The set \mathbb^2 of the ordered pairs of real numbers (the real coordinate plane), equipped with the dot product, is often called ''the'' Euclidean plane or ''standard Euclidean plane'', since every Euclidean plane is isomorphic to it. History Books I through IV and VI of Euclid's Elements dealt with two-dimensional geometry, developing such notions as similarity of shapes, the Pythagorean theorem (Proposition 47), equality of angles and areas, parallelism, the sum of the angles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
