Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2001/iii/paper-14/3/a/solution

Every projective line on the smooth algebraic surface through lies in the projective tangent plane , since its tangent direction is contained in the surface's Zariski tangent space. The plane section is a nonzero plane cubic. It cannot be the entire plane, since a smooth cubic surface is irreducible and has no plane component.
Each distinct projective line through is therefore a distinct degree-one factor of the cubic restricted to . A degree-three polynomial has at most three such factors. Hence there are at most three lines through any point. This is the lines through a point of a smooth cubic surface bound; equality is allowed when the tangent section consists of three concurrent lines.

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