BRIEF ANSWERS TO TEST 1 (PDF file for Test 1)

  1. The Fano plane is the projective completion of the smallest affine plane. It has 7 points and 7 lines. If we define betweenness so that A*B*C means "A, B, and C are distinct collinear points", then axioms B1 and B2 hold. (Remark: in order to prove that axiom B2 holds, one must show that whenever B and D are distinct points on a line, then there exist A, C and E such that A*B*D, B*C*D, and B*D*E. One shows this by taking A = C = E = the unique third point on the line through B and D.)

  2. To show that B2 is independent of I1, I2, I3, B1, and B3 we have to describe two models: one where I1-3 and B1, B2, B3 hold, and another where I1-3, B1, ~B2, B3 hold.

    We can take R^2 (the real plane) for the first model.

    For the other model we can take the 3 point incidence plane (a triangle) and define betweenness so that A*B*C NEVER HOLDS. Then I1-3 hold because the triangle is an incidence plane. B1 and B3 hold because there are no instances of betweenness and no lines with 3 distinct points on them. B2 fails because there exist a pair of distinct points B and D on the same line, but no point C such that B*C*D.


BRIEF ANSWERS TO TEST 2 (PDF file for Test 2)


Last modified on Mar 11, 2004.