geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...

, a point at infinity or ideal point is an idealized limiting point at the "end" of each line. In the case of an affine plane (including the

Euclidean plane In mathematics, the Euclidean plane is a Euclidean space of dimension two. That is, a geometric setting in which two real quantities are required to determine the position of each point ( element of the plane), which includes affine notions ...

), there is one ideal point for each

pencil A pencil () is a writing or drawing implement with a solid pigment core in a protective casing that reduces the risk of core breakage, and keeps it from marking the user's hand. Pencils create marks by physical abrasion, leaving a tra ...

of parallel lines of the plane. Adjoining these points produces a

projective plane In mathematics, a projective plane is a geometric structure that extends the concept of a plane. In the ordinary Euclidean plane, two lines typically intersect in a single point, but there are some pairs of lines (namely, parallel lines) that d ...

, in which no point can be distinguished, if we "forget" which points were added. This holds for a geometry over any field, and more generally over any

division ring In algebra, a division ring, also called a skew field, is a nontrivial ring in which division by nonzero elements is defined. Specifically, it is a nontrivial ring in which every nonzero element has a multiplicative inverse, that is, an element ...

. In the real case, a point at infinity completes a line into a topologically closed curve. In higher dimensions, all the points at infinity form a projective subspace of one dimension less than that of the whole projective space to which they belong. A point at infinity can also be added to the

complex line In mathematics, a complex line is a one-dimensional affine subspace of a vector space over the complex numbers. A common point of confusion is that while a complex line has dimension one over C (hence the term "line"), it has dimension two over the ...

(which may be thought of as the complex plane), thereby turning it into a closed surface known as the complex projective line, CP¹, also called the

Riemann sphere In mathematics, the Riemann sphere, named after Bernhard Riemann, is a model of the extended complex plane: the complex plane plus one point at infinity. This extended plane represents the extended complex numbers, that is, the complex numbers ...

(when complex numbers are mapped to each point). In the case of a

hyperbolic space In mathematics, hyperbolic space of dimension n is the unique simply connected, n-dimensional Riemannian manifold of constant sectional curvature equal to -1. It is homogeneous, and satisfies the stronger property of being a symmetric space. The ...

, each line has two distinct

ideal point In hyperbolic geometry, an ideal point, omega point or point at infinity is a well-defined point outside the hyperbolic plane or space. Given a line ''l'' and a point ''P'' not on ''l'', right- and left- limiting parallels to ''l'' through '' ...

s. Here, the set of ideal points takes the form of a

quadric In mathematics, a quadric or quadric surface (quadric hypersurface in higher dimensions), is a generalization of conic sections (ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas). It is a hypersurface (of dimension ''D'') in a -dimensional space, and it is de ...

Affine geometry

In an

affine Affine may describe any of various topics concerned with connections or affinities. It may refer to: * Affine, a relative by marriage in law and anthropology * Affine cipher, a special case of the more general substitution cipher * Affine comb ...

Euclidean space Euclidean space is the fundamental space of geometry, intended to represent physical space. Originally, that is, in Euclid's ''Elements'', it was the three-dimensional space of Euclidean geometry, but in modern mathematics there are Euclidea ...

of higher dimension, the points at infinity are the points which are added to the space to get the projective completion. The set of the points at infinity is called, depending on the dimension of the space, the

line at infinity In geometry and topology, the line at infinity is a projective line that is added to the real (affine) plane in order to give closure to, and remove the exceptional cases from, the incidence properties of the resulting projective plane. The ...

, the

plane at infinity In projective geometry, a plane at infinity is the hyperplane at infinity of a three dimensional projective space or to any plane contained in the hyperplane at infinity of any projective space of higher dimension. This article will be concerned ...

or the

hyperplane at infinity In geometry, any hyperplane ''H'' of a projective space ''P'' may be taken as a hyperplane at infinity. Then the set complement is called an affine space. For instance, if are homogeneous coordinates for ''n''-dimensional projective space, then ...

, in all cases a projective space of one less dimension. As a projective space over a field is a smooth algebraic variety, the same is true for the set of points at infinity. Similarly, if the ground field is the real or the complex field, the set of points at infinity is a

manifold In mathematics, a manifold is a topological space that locally resembles Euclidean space near each point. More precisely, an n-dimensional manifold, or ''n-manifold'' for short, is a topological space with the property that each point has a n ...

Perspective

In artistic drawing and technical perspective, the projection on the picture plane of the point at infinity of a class of parallel lines is called their

vanishing point A vanishing point is a point on the image plane of a perspective drawing where the two-dimensional perspective projections of mutually parallel lines in three-dimensional space appear to converge. When the set of parallel lines is perpendicul ...

Hyperbolic geometry

hyperbolic geometry In mathematics, hyperbolic geometry (also called Lobachevskian geometry or Bolyai–Lobachevskian geometry) is a non-Euclidean geometry. The parallel postulate of Euclidean geometry is replaced with: :For any given line ''R'' and point ''P ...

, points at infinity are typically named

s. Unlike Euclidean and elliptic geometries, each line has two points at infinity: given a line ''l'' and a point ''P'' not on ''l'', the right- and left-

limiting parallel In neutral or absolute geometry, and in hyperbolic geometry, there may be many lines parallel to a given line l through a point P not on line R; however, in the plane, two parallels may be closer to l than all others (one in each direction of R) ...

s converge

asymptotically In analytic geometry, an asymptote () of a curve is a line such that the distance between the curve and the line approaches zero as one or both of the ''x'' or ''y'' coordinates tends to infinity. In projective geometry and related contexts, ...

to different points at infinity. All points at infinity together form the

Cayley absolute Cayley may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Cayley (surname) * Cayley Illingworth (1759–1823), Anglican Archdeacon of Stow * Cayley Mercer (born 1994), Canadian women's ice hockey player Places * Cayley, Alberta, Canada, a hamlet * Mount Cayley, ...

or boundary of a

hyperbolic plane In mathematics, hyperbolic geometry (also called Lobachevskian geometry or Bolyai– Lobachevskian geometry) is a non-Euclidean geometry. The parallel postulate of Euclidean geometry is replaced with: :For any given line ''R'' and point ' ...

Projective geometry

A symmetry of points and lines arises in a projective plane: just as a pair of points determine a line, so a pair of lines determine a point. The existence of parallel lines leads to establishing a point at infinity which represents the intersection of these parallels. This axiomatic symmetry grew out of a study of

graphical perspective Linear or point-projection perspective (from la, perspicere 'to see through') is one of two types of graphical projection perspective in the graphic arts; the other is parallel projection. Linear perspective is an approximate representation, ...

where a

parallel projection In three-dimensional geometry, a parallel projection (or axonometric projection) is a projection of an object in three-dimensional space onto a fixed plane, known as the '' projection plane'' or ''image plane'', where the '' rays'', known as ' ...

arises as a

central projection In mathematics, a projection is a mapping of a set (or other mathematical structure) into a subset (or sub-structure), which is equal to its square for mapping composition, i.e., which is idempotent. The restriction to a subspace of a projec ...

where the center ''C'' is a point at infinity, or figurative point.

G. B. Halsted George Bruce Halsted (November 25, 1853 – March 16, 1922), usually cited as G. B. Halsted, was an American mathematician who explored foundations of geometry and introduced non-Euclidean geometry into the United States through his own work and ...

(1906
Synthetic Projective Geometry
page 7 The axiomatic symmetry of points and lines is called duality. Though a point at infinity is considered on a par with any other point of a

projective range In mathematics, a projective range is a set of points in projective geometry considered in a unified fashion. A projective range may be a projective line or a conic. A projective range is the dual of a pencil of lines on a given point. For inst ...

, in the representation of points with

projective coordinates In mathematics, homogeneous coordinates or projective coordinates, introduced by August Ferdinand Möbius in his 1827 work , are a system of coordinates used in projective geometry, just as Cartesian coordinate system, Cartesian coordinates are u ...

, distinction is noted: finite points are represented with a 1 in the final coordinate while a point at infinity has a 0 there. The need to represent points at infinity requires that one extra coordinate beyond the space of finite points is needed.

Other generalisations

This construction can be generalized to

topological space In mathematics, a topological space is, roughly speaking, a geometrical space in which closeness is defined but cannot necessarily be measured by a numeric distance. More specifically, a topological space is a set whose elements are called poin ...

s. Different compactifications may exist for a given space, but arbitrary topological space admits

Alexandroff extension In the mathematical field of topology, the Alexandroff extension is a way to extend a noncompact topological space by adjoining a single point in such a way that the resulting space is compact. It is named after the Russian mathematician Pavel Ale ...

, also called the ''one-point compactification'' when the original space is not itself

compact Compact as used in politics may refer broadly to a pact or treaty; in more specific cases it may refer to: * Interstate compact * Blood compact, an ancient ritual of the Philippines * Compact government, a type of colonial rule utilized in Britis ...

. Projective line (over arbitrary field) is the Alexandroff extension of the corresponding field. Thus the circle is the one-point compactification of the

real line In elementary mathematics, a number line is a picture of a graduated straight line that serves as visual representation of the real numbers. Every point of a number line is assumed to correspond to a real number, and every real number to a po ...

, and the sphere is the one-point compactification of the plane.

Projective space In mathematics, the concept of a projective space originated from the visual effect of perspective, where parallel lines seem to meet ''at infinity''. A projective space may thus be viewed as the extension of a Euclidean space, or, more generally ...

s P for > 1 are not ''one-point'' compactifications of corresponding affine spaces for the reason mentioned above under , and completions of hyperbolic spaces with ideal points are also not one-point compactifications.

References