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The Sylvester–Gallai Theorem

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Re: The Sylvester–Gallai Theorem

#51
post #39
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true for finite sets. For infinite sets, the Sierpinski triangle is a counterexample.

That’s an uncountable set. If we want a counter example for uncountable sets a simpler example is a circular area. Anyone happen to know if it is true for countably infinite sets?

Just a regular grid?

That's countable you just go in a spiral.

Re: The Sylvester–Gallai Theorem

#52
post #8

I might be too stupid to understand why this is interesting and useful. If it helps I am a working physicist, and a lot of pure math is lost on me. I think I followed this, but I don't know why one would care or this would be interesting.

It is interesting to a pure mathematician. Since it is obviously true, one's intuition is that it should have a simple proof. In particular, the obvious induction ought to work. The base case is n=2. The line joining them passes through exactly two points because that is all you have. Now we attempt the induction step. We have n+1 points. Leave one, p, out. We know that the theorem applies to the n points by the indu…

Thank you, this actually was a great answer for me. I really appreciate it.
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