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Concept
Pencil (geometry)
Summary
In geometry, a pencil is a family of geometric objects with a common property, for example the set of lines that pass through a given point in a plane, or the set of circles that pass through two given points in a plane.
Although the definition of a pencil is rather vague, the common characteristic is that the pencil is completely determined by any two of its members. Analogously, a set of geometric objects that are determined by any three of its members is called a bundle. Thus, the set of all lines through a point in three-space is a bundle of lines, any two of which determine a pencil of lines. To emphasize the two-dimensional nature of such a pencil, it is sometimes referred to as a flat pencil.
Any geometric object can be used in a pencil. The common ones are lines, planes, circles, conics, spheres, and general curves. Even points can be used. A pencil of points is the set of all points on a given line. A more common term for this set is a range of points.
In a plane, let u and v be two distinct intersecting lines. For concreteness, suppose that u has the equation, aX + bY + c = 0 and v has the equation a'X + b'Y + c′ = 0. Then
λu + μv = 0,
represents, for suitable scalars λ and μ, any line passing through the intersection of u = 0 and v = 0. This set of lines passing through a common point is called a pencil of lines. The common point of a pencil of lines is called the vertex of the pencil.
In an affine plane with the reflexive variant of parallelism, a set of parallel lines forms an equivalence class called a pencil of parallel lines. This terminology is consistent with the above definition since in the unique projective extension of the affine plane to a projective plane a single point (point at infinity) is added to each line in the pencil of parallel lines, thus making it a pencil in the above sense in the projective plane.
A pencil of planes, is the set of planes through a given straight line in three-space, called the axis of the pencil. The pencil is sometimes referred to as a axial-pencil or fan of planes or a sheaf of planes.
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