In mathematics, a Hessian pair or Hessian duad, named for Otto Hesse, is a pair of points of the projective line canonically associated with a set of 3 points of the projective line. More generally, one can define the Hessian pair of any triple of elements from a set that can be identified with a projective line, such as a rational curve, a pencil of divisors, a pencil of lines, and so on.