# Notes on projective geometry

## Axioms
A **projective plane** is a triple $(\mathcal{P}, \mathcal{L}, \diamond)$ such t
hat $\diamond \subseteq \mathcal{P} \times \mathcal{L}$ and the following hold:
- For all $p \neq q \in \mathcal{P}$, there's a unique $l \in \mathcal{L}$ with
$p \diamond l$ and $q \diamond l$.
- For all $l \neq m \in \mathcal{L}$, there's a unique $p \in \mathcal{P}$ with
$p \diamond l$ and $p \diamond m$.
- There is a subset $D$ of $\mathcal{P}$ with four elements in it such that no
subset of 3 elements is incident to the same $l \in \mathcal{L}$.
The elements of $\mathcal{P}$ are called points, and the elements of $\mathcal{L
}$ are called lines. We call the unique line incident to two points the *join* o
f those points, notated $p \vee q$a. The unique point incident to two lines is t
he *meet* of the points, notated $l \wedge m$.
**Lemma:** Every projective plane has at least six lines.
*Proof:* $a \vee b$, $a \vee c$, $a \vee d$, $b \vee c$, $b \vee d$, $c \vee d$
are all distinct from each other, since no three lie on the same line. $\Box$
**Lemma:** If $p \diamond l$, $q \diamond l$, $p \diamond m$, $q \diamond m$, th
en $p = q$ or $l = m$.
Restated: Two distinct lines intersect in at most one point, and two distinct po
ints are both incident upon at most one line.
*Proof:* Really just a re-packaging of axioms 1 and 2. If we assume that $p$ is
distinct from $q$, $l$ is distinct from $m$, then $p \vee q$ is the unique line
that $p$ and $q$ are both incident upon (by Axiom 1) it could not hold for both
$l$ and $m$. Alternatively, we could have considered $l \wedge m$ and used Axiom
2. $\Box$
**Lemma:** Every line is incident upon at least 3 distinct points.
*Proof:* If $a,b,c,d$ are the four points in $D$ from axiom 3 and $l$ is an arbi
trary line, then $l$ fails to be incident upon two of the points in $D$ (by defi
nition of those points). Without loss of generality, assume the two points are $
a$ and $b$. Then $a \vee b$, $a \vee c$, $a \vee d$ are all distinct lines, so t
hey each have a unique intersection with $l$. These distinct lines already all i
ntersect at $a$, so none of the intersections of $a \vee b$, $a \vee c$, and $a
\vee d$ with $l$ can be equal, since by the previous lemma two lines cannot inte
rsect at two different points. $\Box$
**Lemma:** No point of a projective plane is incident upon every line in the pla
ne.
*Proof 1:* Let $a, b, c, d$ be the four points from axiom 3 that ensure non-dege
neracy, and suppose $p$ is some arbitrary point. WLOG, suppose $p \neq a$. Then
$a \vee b$ and $a \vee c$ are distinct lines by axiom 3, and they intersect at $
a$. These lines can't also intersect at $p$, so one of them doesn't hit $p$. $\B
ox$
*Proof 2:* Let $p$ be an arbitrary point, and $l$ and $m$ be arbitrary distinct
lines. If both are incident on $p$, then they intersect at $p$ so that $l \wedge
m = p$. There's three distinct points on each line by an earlier lemma, so ther
e's at least one other point, $p_l$, on $l$ and one, $p_m$, on $m$ that aren't $
p$. These have to be distinct from each other, because two lines can't intersect
in two different places (and they already intersect at $p$). $p_l \vee p_m$ is
distinct from $l$ and from $m$ because $p_l$ is already on $l$, so it can't be o
n $m$ because the only point on both is $p$, which we've already established is
distinct from both $p_l$ and $p_m$.
Hence, $p_l \vee p_m$ does not have $p$ on it, because $p_l \vee p_m$ already in
tersects both $l$ and $m$ at one point each, and $p$ is the intersection of $l$
and $m$, so adding $p$ to $p_l \vee p_m$ would be creating two distinct intersec
tions between two lines. $\Box$
The **count** of a line $l$, notated $\mathcal{C}(l)$, is the number of points i
ncident to that line. Similarly define the count for points and the number of li
nes incident to the point.
**Theorem:** If $(\mathcal{P}, \mathcal{L}, \diamond)$ is a projective plane whe
re the point and line sets are finite, then 1) the counts $\mathcal{C}(l)$ of ev
ery line $l \in \mathcal{L}$ are all equal, 2) the counts $\mathcal{C}(p)$ of al
l points $p \in \mathcal{P}$ are all equal, and 3) the line-count is equal to th
e point-count.
*Proof:* First we prove that all lines have the same number of points on them. L
et $l$ and $m$ be distinct lines. The idea is to find some point $q$ not on eith
er $l$ or $m$, then draw lines between $q$ and each point on $l$ and each point
on $m$. The line between $q$ and each point on $l$ intersects $m$, which gives u
s a point on $m$. The same holds for $m$, so we will have proved our proposition
.
To find the $q$, first take the intersection $p = l \wedge m$. If we can find a
line $n$ distinct from $l$ and $m$, then we could use a previous lemma to find
a point $q$ on $n$ distinct from $p$. This point $q$ would have to be distinct f
rom $l$ and $m$, because both those lines already intersect $n$ at $p$ and are d
istinct from $n$. From the first lemma, every projective plane has at least 6 di
stinct lines, so we can find such a line $n$.
Now let $\{a_1, \ldots, a_k\}$ be points on $l$ that aren't $p$. Each line $q \v
ee a_i$ intersects $m$ at $b_i$. Two lines $q \vee a_i$ and $q \vee a_j$ can't i
ntersect anywhere but at $q$, so each $b_i \neq b_j$. Hence for every point on $
l$, there's a point on $m$. This argument works symmetrically for $m$, so every
line has the same count, $k+1$.
Now, given a point $p$ and a line $l$ that doesn't touch $p$ (which we can find
due to a previous lemma). This $l$ has $k+1$ points on it, as just shown, so we
can join all of them to $p$ to get lines incident to $p$. If any two of the lin
es were equal, that would imply that $p$ was on the original line, contrary to h
ypothesis. So there are at least $k+1$ lines incident to $p$. If there were anot
her, it would intersect $l$ at a distinct point, contradicting our assumption th
at there are only $k+1$ points on $l$. $\Box$