Line

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This page is not of significant importance, but thinking about it I have no formal definition of a line, how it pertains to linear maps ect, even though it's "obvious" in my head, Remember:
  • We must be able to account for lines in "weird" spaces, like hyperbolic lines, (arguably) lines in polar coordinates, like r(θ)=1 giving a circle.
Alec (talk) 13:00, 14 December 2018 (UTC)
\newcommand{\v}[1]{\mathbf{#1} }
See also: line (terminology) for an overview of line vs (line) segment vs ray

Definition

Parametrised line

Let \v a\in\mathbb{R}^n be given (for some n\neq 0) and let \v b\in\big(\mathbb{R}^n-\{\v 0\}\big) be given also[Note 1]

  • Define \ell:\mathbb{R}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}^nWarning:We may be able to relax these[Note 2], we will use t\in\mathbb{R} for the parameter to the function \ell
    • Where \ell is given by: \ell:t\mapsto \v a +t\cdot\v b

If we take a point \v c\in\mathbb{R}^n in addition to \v a (taken above) if we define:

  • \v b:\eq \v c-\v a then

\ell(t) is at \v a for t\eq 0 and moves at a uniform speed towards \ell(t)\eq \v c when t\eq 1, that is to say:

  • \ell\big\vert_{[0,1]\subseteq\mathbb{R} }:[0,1]\rightarrow\mathbb{R}^n (Notation: restriction) yields the line segment from \v a to \v b
    • Furthermore, this degenerates correctly in the case that \v a\eq \v c (which would give \v b\eq \v 0

Restricting t to \mathbb{R}_{\ge 0} yields the ray based at \v a through \v c (provided we may call the case of \ell given by \v c\eq \v a a "ray" at all, as it's a point, same as the segment and line in this case)

Not restricting t at all, so t\in\mathbb{R} , yields the line through \v a and \v c, provided again we count the degenerate case \v a\eq \v c a line.

Notes

  1. Jump up
    This is written verbosely as an introduction to the style of proofs. We seek to show that \ell(t) actually moves as t changes without using calculus
    We want \ell(t) to actually move with t, notice that:
    • \ell(t+\delta t)-\ell(t)\eq \big(\v a+(t+\delta t)\cdot\v b\big)-\big(\v a+t\cdot\v b\big) (for \Vert\cdot\Vert denoting a norm and \vert\cdot\vert denoting an absolute value object, but specifically here just the absolute value as we're dealing with \mathbb{R} )
      \eq \v a-\v a+t\cdot\v b-t\cdot \v b+\delta t\cdot \v b
      \eq \delta t\cdot \v b
    Thus:
    • \big\Vert \ell(t+\delta t)-\ell(t)\big\Vert \eq \Vert \delta t\cdot \v b\Vert \eq \vert \delta t\vert \cdot\Vert \v b\Vert
    So by the properties of a norm (using any norm for which we may write \Vert\v b\Vert) we see:
    • \big(\vert\delta t\vert\cdot\Vert \v b\Vert\eq 0\in\mathbb{R}\big)\iff\big((\vert\delta t\vert\eq 0)\vee(\Vert\v b\Vert\eq 0)\big)
      • Notice \delta t\neq 0\in\mathbb{R} \implies\vert\delta t\vert\neq 0 (for \vert\cdot\vert being the absolute value of course)
        • So to have \big((\vert\delta t\vert\eq 0)\vee(\Vert\v b\Vert\eq 0)\big) holding (being true) means that \Vert\v b\Vert\eq 0 must be true (as the only way "A or B" can be true if A is known to be false is for B to be true)
    Thus given \delta t\neq 0 we see that:
    • \big(\big\Vert \ell(t+\delta t)-\ell(t)\big\Vert\eq 0\big)\iff\big(\big\Vert\v b\Vert \eq 0\big) which is equivalent to:
      • \big(\big\Vert \ell(t+\delta t)-\ell(t)\big\Vert\neq 0\big)\iff\big(\big\Vert\v b\Vert \neq 0\big)
        • Note that this \iff is only true in the scope of \delta t\neq 0 being given.
    Finally we observe again that as per the definition of a norm that \Vert\v b\Vert\eq 0\iff \v b\eq \v 0, combining this we have shown:
    • \forall \delta t\in\mathbb{R}\forall \v a,\v b\in\mathbb{R}^n\left[\delta t\neq 0\implies \Big(\big[\Big\Vert \ell(t+\delta t)-\ell(t)\big\Vert\neq 0\Big]\iff\big\Vert\v b\Vert \neq 0\iff \v b\neq \v 0\Big) \right]
    That is that provided \v b is non-zero, the line is "not a point", \ell(t) actually changes with t.
  2. Jump up In fact we must be able to relax this to give lines in "weird" spaces

References