Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2003/ib/paper-1/4f/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 ib Paper 1 4F Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the Poincaré half-plane model, with metric . Its hyperbolic lines are vertical lines and semicircles centred on the real boundary, hence orthogonal to that boundary. Each has two ideal endpoints in . Distinct parallel hyperbolic lines are disjoint inside and share one ideal endpoint; distinct ultraparallel hyperbolic lines are disjoint and share none. Intersecting lines are neither. Because the metric is conformal to the Euclidean metric, the two notions of angle agree.
Apply a hyperbolic isometry taking one line to the imaginary axis, whose ideal endpoints are . If the other line is ultraparallel, its endpoints are two finite nonzero real numbers of the same sign. Reflect if necessary to write them as . Then is the semicircle with centre and radius .
Every hyperbolic line perpendicular to the imaginary axis must be a semicircle centred at zero: at the intersection its tangent has to be horizontal, forcing its real centre to coincide with zero. Let its radius be . Orthogonality to the circle representing requires , since the radii to the intersection form a right triangle. ConsequentlyThis has exactly one positive solution. The circles intersect above the real axis: . Hence the required common perpendicular of ultraparallel hyperbolic lines exists and is unique.
Conversely, if intersects the imaginary axis, its endpoints straddle zero and the same equation would require , which is impossible. If has endpoint zero, it gives , not a line. If its shared endpoint is infinity, is another vertical line; no circle centred at zero meets a distinct vertical line with horizontal tangent. Thus parallel lines have no common perpendicular either. These cases exhaust distinct lines, proving a unique common perpendicular exists exactly for ultraparallel lines.
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