midpoint
The concept of midpoint of line segment (http://planetmath.org/Midpoint) is a special case of the midpoint of a curve or arbitrary figure in or .
A point is a midpoint of the figure , if for each point of there is a point of such that is the midpoint of the line segment . One says also that is symmetric about the point .
Given the equation of a curve in or of a surface in , one can, if , take a new point for the origin by using the linear substitutions of the form
Thus one may test whether the origin is the midpoint of by checking whether always contains along with any point also the point .
It is easily verified the
Theorem. If the origin is the midpoint of a quadratic curve or a quadratic surface, then its equation has no terms of degree (http://planetmath.org/BasicPolynomial) 1.
Similarly one can verify the generalisation, that if the origin is the midpoint of an algebraic curve or surface of degree , the equation has no terms of degree , and so on.
Note. Some curves and surfaces have infinitely many midpoints (see quadratic surfaces (http://planetmath.org/QuadraticSurfaces)).
References
- 1 Felix Iversen: Analyyttisen geometrian oppikirja. Tiedekirjasto Nr. 19. Second edition. Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava, Helsinki (1963).
Title | midpoint |
---|---|
Canonical name | Midpoint1 |
Date of creation | 2015-04-25 17:39:00 |
Last modified on | 2015-04-25 17:39:00 |
Owner | pahio (2872) |
Last modified by | pahio (2872) |
Numerical id | 9 |
Author | pahio (2872) |
Entry type | Definition |
Classification | msc 51M15 |
Classification | msc 51-00 |
Synonym | centre |
Synonym | center |