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Winner will get 10 points.
I’ll post the answer in a day or two

Remember simple

2006-07-14 15:10:29 · 20 answers · asked by Juggernaut 3 in Science & Mathematics Mathematics

A straight line can be defined as

An infinitely small line, with an infinitely large circle, with an infinitely small sample of the circle.

And yes there will be still a curve (mathematically), but the deviation will be infinitely negligible. (too small to be measured, with any mean)

This constitutes a straight line.

This was given to us as a math test, in university.

2006-07-15 14:53:31 · update #1

Also rule was to keep it simple

2006-07-15 14:55:24 · update #2

Coping from a text book ( plagiarism ),
y=mx+b determine slope of a line, to a reference, not what I’m looking for.

Again this was presented to us on an exam as a bonus question, to test our cognitive skills
NASA term KISs ( Keep It Simple ).

You decide which is the best answer.

I got the bonus marks with this explination, the professor stated, my explanation was accurate


You decide which is the best answer.

2006-07-17 05:34:07 · update #3

20 answers

The distance between two points :-)

2006-07-14 15:13:23 · answer #1 · answered by Kay O 3 · 0 0

In terms of an algebraic definition, a line is determined by two points. With slope and all that non-sense.

Euclid tried to define a line as well. But what is a line really? There is an intuitive idea of what a line is just like there is an intuitive definition of what a point is. But in the end, the problem with language is that there are just some limitations. Take for example how do you explain to a blind man the color blue. So in many cases especially from the Geometry point of view a line is an undefined term. So technically speaking a line is undefined.

2006-07-15 00:44:15 · answer #2 · answered by JL 2 · 0 0

A line, or straight line, can be described as an (infinitely) thin, (infinitely) long, perfectly straight curve (the term curve in mathematics includes "straight curves"). In Euclidean geometry, exactly one line can be found that passes through any two points. The line provides the shortest connection between the points.

Three or more points that lie on the same line are called collinear. In two dimensions, two different lines can either be parallel, meaning they never meet, or may intersect at one and only one point. In three or more dimensions, lines may also be skew, meaning they don't meet, but also don't define a plane. Two planes intersect in at most one line.

Lines in a Cartesian plane can be described algebraically by linear equations and linear functions.

This intuitive concept of a line can be formalized in various ways. If geometry is developed axiomatically (as in Euclid's Elements and later in David Hilbert's Foundations of Geometry), then lines are not defined at all, but characterized axiomatically by their properties. While Euclid did define a line as "length without breadth", he did not use this rather obscure definition in his later development.

2006-07-14 22:16:37 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

A line, or straight line, can be described as an (infinitely) thin, (infinitely) long, perfectly straight curve (the term curve in mathematics includes "straight curves"). In Euclidean geometry, exactly one line can be found that passes through any two points. The line provides the shortest connection between the points.

Three or more points that lie on the same line are called collinear. In two dimensions, two different lines can either be parallel, meaning they never meet, or may intersect at one and only one point. In three or more dimensions, lines may also be skew, meaning they don't meet, but also don't define a plane. Two planes intersect in at most one line.

Lines in a Cartesian plane can be described algebraically by linear equations and linear functions.

This intuitive concept of a line can be formalized in various ways. If geometry is developed axiomatically (as in Euclid's Elements and later in David Hilbert's Foundations of Geometry), then lines are not defined at all, but characterized axiomatically by their properties. While Euclid did define a line as "length without breadth", he did not use this rather obscure definition in his later development.

In a two-dimensional space, such as the plane, two different lines must either be parallel lines or must intersect at one point. In higher-dimensional spaces however, two lines may do neither, and two such lines are called skew lines.

More abstractly, one usually thinks of the real line as the prototype of a line, and assumes that the points on a line stand in a one-to-one correspondence with the real numbers. However, one could also use the hyperreal numbers for this purpose, or even the long line of topology.

The "straightness" of a line, interpreted as the property that it minimizes distances between its points, can be generalized and leads to the concept of geodesics on differentiable manifolds.

In Euclidean geometry, a ray, or half-line, given two distinct points A (the origin) and B on the ray, is the set of points C on the line containing points A and B such that A is not strictly between C and B. In geometry, a ray starts at one point, then goes on forever in one direction.


In geometric optics a ray or a (light) beam is a line or curve that describes the direction in which light or other electromagnetic radiation is propagated. The ray is perpendicular to the wavefront in wave optics.

In most media, light rays are straight lines. Light passing from one medium to another undergoes refraction or total internal reflection following Snell's law.

2006-07-14 22:28:56 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

I agree on a number of explanations as the simplest:

y=mx+b
point a to b, no slope
shortest distance between points a and b
and ___

2006-07-15 01:06:33 · answer #5 · answered by avengress 4 · 0 0

Straight line is redundant. All lines are straight.

A line is made up of infinitely many points. A point has no size or shape. Therefore, a line has no thickness and infinite length.

2006-07-15 02:31:46 · answer #6 · answered by Greyhound_Guy 2 · 0 0

A straight line is one which when drawn between two points ,keeping the distance between them to the minimum.

2006-07-14 22:48:33 · answer #7 · answered by SR BODA 3 · 0 0

The person who answered above me sure missed that phrase, "simple definition." A page and a half isn't simple.

The correct answer is: The shortest distance between two points.

2006-07-14 22:30:43 · answer #8 · answered by Plasmapuppy 7 · 0 0

1 Definition -
Shortest distance b/w two points

2nd Definition -
tangent angle at all point in the line is same then it is surely Straight line!

2006-07-14 22:49:39 · answer #9 · answered by Azurri 2 · 0 0

A straight line has a constant slope.

2006-07-14 23:09:42 · answer #10 · answered by DoctaB01 2 · 0 0

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