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In analytic geometry, the intersection of a line and a plane in three-dimensional space can be the empty set, a point, or a line. It is the entire line if that line is embedded in the plane, and is the empty set if the line is parallel to the plane but outside it. Otherwise, the line cuts through the plane at a single point.
A plane is the two-dimensional analogue of a point (zero dimensions), a line (one dimension) and three-dimensional space. When working exclusively in two-dimensional Euclidean space, the definite article is used, so the Euclidean plane refers to the whole space. Several notions of a plane may be defined.
A Euclidean plane with a chosen Cartesian coordinate system is called a Cartesian plane. In a Cartesian plane, one can define canonical representatives of certain geometric figures, such as the unit circle (with radius equal to the length unit, and center at the origin), the unit square (whose diagonal has endpoints at (0, 0) and (1, 1) ), the ...
Lines in a Cartesian plane, or more generally, in affine coordinates, can be described algebraically by linear equations. In two dimensions, the equation for non-vertical lines is often given in the slope-intercept form: = + where: m is the slope or gradient of the line. b is the y-intercept of the line.
The most basic example is the flat Euclidean plane, an idealization of a flat surface in physical space such as a sheet of paper or a chalkboard. On the Euclidean plane, any two points can be joined by a unique straight line along which the distance can be measured.
Most non-Euclidean geometries can be modeled by a manifold, and embedded in a Euclidean space of higher dimension. For example, an elliptic space can be modeled by an ellipsoid. It is common to represent in a Euclidean space mathematical objects that are a priori not of a geometrical nature. An example among many is the usual representation of ...
In analytic geometry a plane is described with Cartesian coordinates: = {(,):,} The points are sometimes identified with generalized complex numbers z = x + y ε where ε 2 ∈ { –1, 0, 1}. The Euclidean plane corresponds to the case ε 2 = −1, an imaginary unit. Since the modulus of z is given by
A Euclidean plane with a chosen Cartesian coordinate system is called a Cartesian plane. The set R 2 {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{2}} of the ordered pairs of real numbers (the real coordinate plane ), equipped with the dot product , is often called the Euclidean plane or standard Euclidean plane , since every Euclidean plane is isomorphic to it.