Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-geometry-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2009/b/4/solution

For every , the line meets the nonsingular conic in two points counted with multiplicity by the Bézout theorem. One is ; define as the second, using for the unique tangent line at . Conversely, for , intersect the line with , and send itself to the intersection of its tangent with . Since , each intersection with is unique. These constructions are inverse, so is a bijection preserving the stated collinearity. This is parametrization of a conic by projection.
For the particular conic take and . If , points on have coordinates . Substitution into the conic gives
Taking the second intersection gives the explicit map
The three coordinates do not vanish simultaneously. If , the formula gives , as required for the tangent direction.
For rational points, put when . The full affine list is
together with the parameter , which gives . The denominator is for rational . Conversely, every rational point other than determines a rational joining line and hence a rational point of ; the point is obtained at . Thus this lists all rational solutions.
Figure 1.
Projection from a rational conic point to a line
. Details.

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