Projective Planes of Low Order

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is shorthand for the projective plane of order
. The first figure presents
), the best-known finite projective plane, the Fano plane, with 7 points on 7 lines. The central triangle (often drawn as a circle) is the seventh "line". Each point lies on
lines and each line also passes through 3 points; every pair of points defines a single line and every pair of lines defines a single point. This presentation is shown when "Fano" is selected. It does not generalize to higher orders
because it is a configuration, where points can be at the end or middle of a line. (The controls center,
and
, do not apply in this case.) There is no difference between the two representations for
or "Fano" except a rearrangement of the lines.
Contributed by: Roger Beresford (March 2011)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
Snapshots
Details
The thumbnail is as the Fano plane with seven "lines", and shows features that are not typical of other projective planes. The first snapshot is a more representative version of
, with each "line" expanded into a triangle.
(the first prime-power case) is shown similarly. The last two snapshots show an invalid attempt to create
, with lines sharing two points.
The ,
, and
data are adapted from Projective Planes of Small Order.
Projective planes are restricted cases of block designs , with
vertices, partitioned into blocks (sets of
vertices) in such a way that any two vertices are in exactly
blocks.
(if it exists) is
. A configuration
is
points each on exactly
lines; points and lines can be at infinity; only
,
, and
allow a configuration.
, configuration
, and the Fano plane all define
.
Permanent Citation