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I managed to find, by enumeration, the intersection point of two planes $ax+by+cz+d=0$ and $ex+fy+gz+h=0$, in all possible cases (with the condition that the planes are not parallel). But this is a very ugly proof.

I wonder if there is a quicker and more elegant proof (without linear algebra --- this is high school level (Euclidean) geometry)?

A. Thomas Yerger
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    Isn't that the definition of non-parallel? What definitions are you working with. – florence Jul 24 '16 at 04:12
  • @florence: Two planes are parallel if their normal vectors can be written as scalar multiples of each other. –  Jul 24 '16 at 04:14
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    I'm not sure if there is a proof that isn't circular somehow... this sounds very much like the parallel postulate which says that two non-parallel lines on a plane must intersect at some point. The two-dimensional version was one of Euclid's axioms, but by rejecting that axiom we can still have a system which works just fine. – JMoravitz Jul 24 '16 at 04:28
  • It was proven over 150 years ago that there can not be any such proof. If you are using analytic geometry your reasoning is must assuredly circular and the entire basis of analytinc geometry isthat the coordinate system is defined on the principals of plane geometry so you can't use it to prove anything as everything is a priora axiomatically included. – fleablood Jul 24 '16 at 04:46
  • @fleablood: I can rephrase the claim as: "Suppose $(a,b,c)\neq(0,0,0)\neq(d,e,f)$ and $(a,b,c)\neq k(d,e,f)$ for any $k$. Then there is always a solution $(x,y,z)$ to the system of equations $ax+by+cz+d=0$ and $ex+fy+gz+h=0$." You're telling me that there can be no proof (or counter-example) to this claim? –  Jul 24 '16 at 05:02
  • No, I'm telling y that claim is trivial and irrelevant and has nothing whatsoever to do with lines intersecting. Unless you associate systems of equations to represent plane geometry. And you can only do that if you assume plane geometry obeys Euclid's 5th posulate. Then you can claim that solutions indicate non-equal slope lines intersect, but such an observation is pointless as such was assumed when analytic geometry was invented. – fleablood Jul 24 '16 at 05:08
  • @fleablood: I believe my claim here is the same as that at Mathworld, except that he starts by defining planes to be parallel if they do not intersect, then shows that this is equivalent to their normal vectors being parallel. (While I go the other way round.) So is Mathworld also wrong? –  Jul 24 '16 at 05:10
  • "linear" algebra is so called because it is modeled after geometry lines in classic geometry. It can not prove anything about geometry other than what it was modeled to represent. Systems of equations have solutions but that can only be interpreted to mean lines intersect if we assume lines obey linear algebra. And we can only do that if we assume non equal sloped lines intersect in the first place. – fleablood Jul 24 '16 at 05:13
  • No, but Mathworld isn't claiming to prove Euclid's 5th postulate. Mathworld is taking Euclidean geometry as a model a priori and defining coordinate systems to be compatible with it. When Mathworld eventually proofs all linear systems have solutions it is taken to represent non-parallel lines but it is not considered a prove about non-parallel lines that wasn't already assumed as an axiom. – fleablood Jul 24 '16 at 05:17
  • Well, you can either define synthetic geometry first (define the postulates for Euclidean geometry, then derive the real number system from that), or you can define analytic geometry first (define the real number system first and then define the plane). In the first case the parallel behavior is explicitly specified, in the second it is more implicit and so must be proved. – The_Sympathizer Jul 24 '16 at 07:21
  • But both approaches are logically equivalent, it's really more of just "what axioms you present". E.g. you can present axioms for a Euclidean plane, or for an ordered field with some suitable extra properties (must be Dedekind complete if you want the real numbers specifically). In the first case you make an ordered field a definition in terms of the plane, in the second the plane is defined in terms of an ordered field. – The_Sympathizer Jul 24 '16 at 07:23

6 Answers6

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Let $\Pi_1, \Pi_2$ be the planes in the question.

Let $P_1$ the the plane $ax+by+cz=0$ (parallel to $\Pi_1$) and let $P_2$ be the plane $ex+fy+gz=0$ (parallel to $\Pi_2$).

Pick a point $d \in P_1$ that is not on $P_2$. Such a point must exist, otherwise the planes are parallel.

We see that $a d_1 + b d_2 + c d_3 = 0$ and $e d_1 + f d_2 + g d_3 \neq 0$.

Now pick any point $(x,y,z)$ on the plane $\Pi_1$ described by $ax+by+cz+d = 0$ and consider the point $(x,y,z) + t (d_1,d_2,d_3)$ as $t$ varies. For any $t$ this point lies in $\Pi_1$, and if we choose $t^* = - {ex + f y + g z+h \over e d_1 + f d_2 + g d_3}$, we see that the point corresponding to $t^*$ lies on $\Pi_2$.

Watson
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copper.hat
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Without loss of generality, we can take one plane to be the XY-plane, since the problem is fixed under translation and rotation. Let the second plane have normal vector $u=(u_1, u_2, u_3)$ and some point $p=(p_1, p_2, p_3)$. Noting that $v=(0, -u_3,u_2)$ is perpendicular to $u$, $p+tv$ is in that plane for all scalar $t \in \mathbb{R}$. Choosing $t = -p_3/u_2$ gives $(p_1, p_2+p_3u_3/u_2, 0)$ is in both planes, proving that they intersect.

Ben G.
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You want to show that if $v,w$ are linearly independent vectors in $\mathbb R^3$, then the $2\times 3$ matrix $A$ formed by putting $v$ and $w$ in two rows defines a map $A:\mathbb R^3\to \mathbb R^2$ that is onto. It suffices you show that the kernel of $A$ has dimension $1$ when $v,w$ are linearly independent, from this follows that the image of $A$ has dimension $2$; that is, we can always solve the system

$$ v\cdot x=\lambda,w\cdot x=\mu $$

for any two scalars $\mu,\lambda$ (this is what you want). The claim that $A$ has one dimensional kernel is the same as saying two non parallel planes passing through the origin intersect in a line. Can you prove this?

To do this, you want to show that the simultaneous equations $$ v\cdot x =0,w\cdot x=0$$ have a solution set equal to a line. The fact that $w$ and $v$ are linearly independent means that they are not a scalar multiple of each other. This means the cross product $u=v\times w$ is nonzero, and this gives a nonzero vector $u$ that solves the above, so the kernel has dimension at least $1$ (this is always true!), so we have to check these are all the solutions.

Pick another solution, $x$. Because $(v,w,v\times w)$ is a basis of $\mathbb R^3$, we can write $x$ as a linear combination of $v,w,v\times w$, and if $x\cdot w=x\cdot v=0$, then in fact $x$ is a multiple of $v\times w$ (take the inner product against $v,w$ to see the corresponding coefficients are zero). Thus, as desired, $\ker A $ is generated by $v\times w$.

Pedro
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  • I'm really sorry. I should have specified "without linear algebra --- this is high school level geometry". –  Jul 24 '16 at 04:25
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    You can always read this when you are done learning linear algebra. =) – Pedro Jul 24 '16 at 04:47
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    Um .... you ever heard of non-euclidean geometry. Such can never be proven and assuming it is not true can not lead to any contradiction and geometry in which this is simply not true are utterly valid. This has been known and proven for uver 150 years. – fleablood Jul 24 '16 at 04:48
  • @fleablood I know what you're talking about, but it is irrelevant here. The statement "two affine hyperplanes in $n$-space that are not parallel intersect in an $n-1$-dimension affine subspace" is completely valid from the usual axioms we work with. This is a statement of linear algebra, devoid of more subtle geometric content. – Pedro Jul 24 '16 at 04:58
  • @PedroTamaroff I wasn't responding to anything in your post are your comments which are absolutely perfect. I was refering to Kenny LJ comment about wanting to prove this without linear algebra and using high school leel geometry. THe answer remains, no, because high school level geometry axiomatically assumes this and other equally valid geometries exist that axiomatically deny this. One can not prove any is true over another. We can only claim each are equally true in their distinct axiom systems. – fleablood Jul 24 '16 at 05:23
  • @fleablood Oh, OK. – Pedro Jul 24 '16 at 06:59
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It seems that this is not meant to be a problem about the axioms of euclidean geometry, but about 3d analytic geometry. If the two planes are not parallel then the two vectors ${\bf u}:=(a,b,c)$ and ${\bf v}:=(e,f,g)$ have a non-vanishing cross product ${\bf u}\times{\bf v}$. It follows that, e.g., $af-be\ne0$. Therefore the system of linear equations $$\eqalign{ax+by&=-cz-d\cr ex+fy&=-gz-h\cr}$$ has a unique solution $(x,y)$ for any choice of $z$. In other words, by solving this system we obtain $x$ and $y$ as functions of $z$: $$x=Az+B,\quad y=Bz+D\ ,$$ whereby $A$, $\ldots$, $D$ depend on the data $a$, $\ldots$, $h$. We then can use these functions in order to set up a parametric representation of the line $\ell$ (not "the point") of intersection of these two planes as follows: $$\ell: \quad z\mapsto\bigl(Az+B,Cz+D,\ z\bigr)\qquad(-\infty<z<\infty)\ .$$ Here we have used the $z$-coordinate of the moving point on $\ell$ as parameter.

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"I managed to find, by enumeration, the intersection point of two planes ax+by+cz+d=0 and ex+fy+gz+h=0, in all possible cases (with the condition that the planes are not parallel). But this is a very ugly proof."

THis is not a proof as analytic geometry was defined with the Euclid's 5th postulate incorporated into the entire basis of converting lines and planes to coordinate system. so this is circular.

"I wonder if there is a quicker and more elegant proof (without linear algebra --- this is high school level geometry)?

No. Because it isn't true. Read up on non-euclidean geometry.

Euclid's 5th postulate-- that if the interior angles of two line and an mutually intersecting third line are supplimentary than the lines never intersect, but if not, the lines will eventually intersect on the side where the interior angles are less than supplementary--- is an axiom.

If we modify the axiom to render that there are infinite number of lines that will not intersect with interior angles of varying measurements, or if we modify it so that all pairs of lines will always intersect twice even if the interior angles are supplimentary--- then the new axiom will yield different but equally valid systems of geometry.

fleablood
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The system of two equations in three unknowns

$$\begin{cases}ax+by+cz+d=0\\ex+fy+gz+h=0\end{cases}$$ usually has a simple infinity of solutions, as one of the unknowns can be set arbitrarily.

There is an exception when the linear coefficients are proportional to each other, $$\lambda a=\mu e, \lambda b=\mu f, \lambda c=\mu g.$$

Then by combining the equations, one gets

$$\lambda d=\mu h.$$

There are two cases:

  • this equality holds: then the two original equations have the same solution set, which is a plane; the given planes are merged.

  • the equality does not hold: then the system is impossible and has no solution; the given planes are parallel and distinct.