Hesse configuration

The Hesse configuration, with four of its lines (the four broken diagonals of the 3×3 array of points) drawn as curves

In geometry, the Hesse configuration is a configuration of 9 points and 12 lines with three points per line and four lines through each point. It can be realized in the complex projective plane as the set of inflection points of an elliptic curve, but it has no realization in the Euclidean plane. It was introduced by Colin Maclaurin and studied by Hesse (1844),[1] and is also known as Young's geometry,[2] named after the later work of John Wesley Young on finite geometry.[3][4]

  1. ^ Hesse, O. (1844), "Über die Elimination der Variabeln aus drei algebraischen Gleichungen vom zweiten Grade mit zwei Variabeln" (PDF), Journal für die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik (in German), 28: 68–96, doi:10.1515/crll.1844.28.68, ISSN 0075-4102.
  2. ^ Wallace, Edward C.; West, Stephen F. (2015), Roads to Geometry (3rd ed.), Waveland Press, pp. 23–24, ISBN 9781478632047
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference macneish was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Veblen, Oswald; Young, John Wesley (1910), Projective Geometry, vol. I, Ginn and Company, p. 249