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Hyperbolic Paraboloid (1 Viewer)

braintic

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Can it be shown algebraicly (ie. without calculus) that a hyperbolic paraboloid is doubly ruled?
I mean ... using 'high school standard' algebra.
 

glittergal96

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I think so.

By symmetry considerations, it suffices to show that for z > 0, and (x,y,z) a point on the hyperbolic paraboloid



that there exists exactly two (up to rescaling) nonzero triples (u,v,w) such that the line entirely lies in H yes?

From standard mx2 conics, we can parametrise points on H in terms of the variables as



If L is to lie in H, we require for any real t that



Expanding this out we get a quadratic:



This polynomial identically vanishes iff its coefficients are both zero.

The leading term tells us



Now if w=0, this identity together with setting the linear coefficient in the t-polynomial to be zero leads to the statement u=v=w=0, which does not give us a "ruling line".

On the other hand, if w is nonzero, by rescaling we might as well assume .

This leaves us with

, which together with (*) lets us solve for u and v.

We get two solution pairs depending on our choice of sign.


Pretty sure this does it, (we haven't treated the z=0 case, but nothing goes wrong here...we are just forced to have w=0 and together with (*) this once again gives us our two ruling lines.)
 

braintic

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I think so.

By symmetry considerations, it suffices to show that for z > 0, and (x,y,z) a point on the hyperbolic paraboloid



that there exists exactly two (up to rescaling) nonzero triples (u,v,w) such that the line entirely lies in H yes?

From standard mx2 conics, we can parametrise points on H in terms of the variables as



If L is to lie in H, we require for any real t that



Expanding this out we get a quadratic:



This polynomial identically vanishes iff its coefficients are both zero.

The leading term tells us



Now if w=0, this identity together with setting the linear coefficient in the t-polynomial to be zero leads to the statement u=v=w=0, which does not give us a "ruling line".

On the other hand, if w is nonzero, by rescaling we might as well assume .

This leaves us with

, which together with (*) lets us solve for u and v.

We get two solution pairs depending on our choice of sign.


Pretty sure this does it, (we haven't treated the z=0 case, but nothing goes wrong here...we are just forced to have w=0 and together with (*) this once again gives us our two ruling lines.)
Sorry, I haven't been well, and only just noticed this.
I'll try to absorb it when my brain is functioning again.
 

glittergal96

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All good.

The rescaling part is completely unnecessary btw, just makes things look a tad nicer.
 

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